Cracking an Icy Mystery -This is the way a wood frog freezes.

washingtonpost.com ^ | Sunday, December 12, 2004 | David A. Fahrenthold

[crushelits]

Trying to Crack An Icy Mystery

Cryogenetic Secrets May Aid Organ Transplant

First, as the temperature drops below 32 degrees, ice crystals start to form just beneath the frog's skin. The normally pliant and slimy amphibian becomes  for lack of a better word -- slushy.

Then, if the mercury continues to fall, ice races inward through the frog's arteries and veins. Its heart and brain stop working, and its eyes freeze to a ghostly white.

"Imagine an ice cube. Paint it green," and you've got the wood frog in winter, said Ken Storey, a professor at Carleton University in Ontario. The frog is solid to the touch and makes a mini-thud when dropped.

But it is not dead. When a thaw comes, the frog is able to melt back into its normal state over a period of several hours, restart its heart and hop away, unscathed.

This amazing process of reanimation -- repeated every winter in the woods of Maryland, Virginia and the District -- is being examined by scientists hoping to learn the secrets of the frog and other animals that freeze solid.

The hope is that these apparent Lazarus routines can yield clues for improving human medicine, including better preservation of organs on their way to transplant patients.

"Here's an amphibian that has solved the problem of cryo-preserving its organs -- all of them, simultaneously," said Jon Costanzo, a professor of zoology at Miami University in Ohio. "And we haven't been able to do that with one [human organ]."

[nuconvert]

hippity, hoppity Pong

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Imagine an ice cube. Paint it green.

Thanks for posting this excellent profile of Hillary Rodham Clinton ;-)

[marktwain]

Important research here. If we learn to cryopreserve organs, thousands of lives will be saved each year. This would be a gigantic step toward workable cryonics for whole humans.

[crushelits]

Good one.

[sasquatch]

Ice cube, not berg.

[JoeSixPack1]

I don't expect to see it in my lifetime. Unless, of course, these frogs just started doing this last week!

If so, we got the jump on 'em! <|:-)~~

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Ice cube, not berg.

Good point. As we know, icebergs have 10 times more on the bottom than on the top ;-)

[carlr]

As we know,icebergs have 10 times more on the bottom than on the top

Than the definition fits Hilliary in more ways than one.

[Dustbunny]

Interesting. Maybe in a few years or so they will solve the mystery and be able to use that knowledge to help humans.

[Savage Beast]

This is the most interesting and credible Washington Post article I've read within memory.

(Okay. There's got to be a hidden agenda here somewhere. What is it?)

[philetus]

I thought Hillary slept in a coffin with dirt from her grave in it.

[CROSSHIGHWAYMAN]

The real question is......

Has anyone extended the time the frog remains frozen to see if it reanimates after a year, two years or 20 yeaers.

Several months in the winter might be its limit.

Combining frog DNA with human genes might create a mutant human who can live in or out of water and cryosleep for long space flights.

The bonus might be basketball superstars "swamping" the sport because of improved jumping ability.

[Riley]

(Okay. There's got to be a hidden agenda here somewhere. What is it?)

Probably that the Bush Administration has failed these poor unfortunate creatures- leaving them to freeze solid in some stinking swamp every winter. Oh, the heartlessness...

[governsleastgovernsbest]

I thought Hillary slept in a coffin with dirt from her grave in it.

She does, but freezes in cold weather, only to thaw and emerge later to scare children and small, harmless Senators.

[SauronOfMordor]

Even bigger, if we get the ability to put humans into cryo suspended animation, we gain the ability to conduct long interplanetary and interstellar explorations

[KarlInOhio]

Probably that the Bush Administration has failed these poor unfortunate creatures- leaving them to freeze solid in some stinking swamp every winter. Oh, the heartlessness...

Females and tadpoles hardest hit.

[Riley]

These creatures would make wonderful paperweights, if you have a chilly office. It's also shaped right to be a good doorstop.

From '101 things you can do with a frozen frog'.

[asgardshill]

I did this with houseflies when I was a kid. They froze solid in the freezer, and I thawed them with Mom's hair dryer the next day; they buzzed off with no apparent ill effects.

I'm sure they were a touch annoyed at me, but anything in the name of science.

[CrazyIvan]

Catching flies with your tongue would be pretty cool also!