Requested by @lowbrrSolosis is obviously based on a biological cell, the basic structural unit of li

Requested by @lowbrr

Solosis is obviously based on a biological cell, the basic structural unit of life. The human brain alone contains over 80 billion individual cells, but there are also billions of single-celled organisms in our world, including amoeba, paramecium, or bacteria. Like a many single-celled organisms in our world, Solosis contains all the typical components of a cell - a stiff outer cell membrane, protecting it from outside hazards; an inner nucleus, where all genetic information is stored as DNA; and gooey cytoplasm, a liquid that cradles all of the other organelles and enables cell growth and replication. Even the little yellow spiral on Solosis’ nucleus has a real counterpart, the endoplasmic reticulum which builds proteins to maintain and grow the cell.

When you think of a single-celled organism like Solosis, you probably think of a tiny, microscopic creatures like an amoeba. You don’t need a microscope to see Solosis though, which stands at over 0.3m tall according to the pokédex! Although rare, there are several single-celled creatures in our world that are big enough to hold in your hand, like Solosis. You might even have one in your fridge - an unfertilized chicken egg is a single cell! More relevant to solosis though, is one of the largest known single-celled organism on Earth, a species of algae called valonia ventricosa, or “bubble algae”.

Bubble Algae are found in tropical areas often in coral reefs, near the Caribbean, Florida, and Brazil. They can grow up to several inches in diameter, but despite their large size, they’re pretty much the exact textbook picture of a cell. Inside they have a nucleus, vacuoles, and chloroplasts, all encompassed in a cytoplasm goo. They even reproduce through mitosis, by splitting themselves in two!

Researchers think that bubble algae is able to grow so large when other cells can’t due to some evolutionary tricks they have up their single-cellular sleeves. First, although the bubble algae is a single cell, they contain many nuclei inside the cell membrane, which each control a small region of the cell and work together to keep the whole thing operating. Second, they have a very large central vacuole, which stores water and helps significantly with the structure of the cell - much like the bones in our body, this vacuole prevents the algae from collapsing in on itself. It also is exceptionally good at personal defense: if the outer membrane gets popped, it will quickly contract to seal up the hole. Solosis likely shares some of these traits, as a large single-cellular organism!

Biology lesson aside, there’s something about Solosis that makes it extra special - according to its pokédex entries, Solosis can survive in the vacuum of space!

If you find yourself in space without a spacesuit, you’re going to have a bad time. There is no oxygen to breathe, and all of the fluids in your body would boil and then freeze in the vacuum, in the span of about 15 seconds. And if you somehow survive that, you’re still bombarded with intense radiation from the sun, no longer filtered by the protection of the Earth’s atmosphere.

Still, there is at least one organism on Earth who, like Solosis, can survive on its own in the vacuum of space: tardigrades!

Tardigrades are tiny (albeit multicellular) water-dwelling, moss-eating creatures that are found pretty much everywhere on earth, from your backyard pond, Antartica, the Himalayas, to the 700 degree Fahrenheit hydrothermal vents deep in the ocean. In 2007, the European Space agency sent some of these creatures up to the International Space Station to study how they do in space, where we learned they can survive even after floating freely in the vaccuum!

Their secret to survival is a process called cryptobiosis.Basically, when they encounter a hazardous environment or extreme temperatures, their tiny bodies completely shut down, halting all metabolic function. They can’t move or reproduce, but they also don’t need to eat, drink, or breathe, sort of like an extreme version of sleep. Tardigrades can survive in cryptobiosis for up to 30 years, and then resume life as normal as if nothing ever happened.

Tardigrades also have an extreme resistance to radiation. The more radiation they are exposed to, the faster their cells produce anti-oxidants, which protect cells from damage and help repair any DNA that might be damaged by the radiation. Who knew something so small could be so extreme?