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Biological Miracle – Wood Frog

(www.nps.gov)
501 points thunderbong | 3 comments | 15 Nov 24 18:16 UTC | HN request time: 0.635s | source
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abound ◴[16 Nov 24 04:12 UTC] No.42154107[source]▶
> Nobody yet understands what starts the wood frog’s heart after being frozen and inert for the entire northern winter.

To me, that's the most fascinating part of the (already quite fascinating) story. Frog is frozen solid, there is no (to our knowledge) heartbeat or brain activity. It thaws and something happens that gets it going again.

I have trouble imagining what that mechanism could even look like. Tiny portion of brain responsible for keeping track of frozen-ness? Some chemical signaling from within the body cavity?

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LoveMortuus ◴[16 Nov 24 04:32 UTC] No.42154260[source]▶
Maybe something like a bit flip but for neurons happens in the frog's brain from the sun's radiation or something.

Or the elasticity of the heart and muscles.

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1. necovek ◴[16 Nov 24 05:54 UTC] No.42154653[source]▶
If it gets frozen in a heavily contracted form, unthawing it will trigger at least one half-beat: could that be enough to restart it?
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2. gnatolf ◴[16 Nov 24 06:42 UTC] No.42154879[source]▶
Hard to imagine that this is significant, given that the (un)thawing is likely quite slow.

Did not think that my early morning would be spend trying to imagine how thawing a frog works. :)

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3. necovek ◴[16 Nov 24 07:50 UTC] No.42155128[source]▶
Good point for sure.