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Biological Miracle – Wood Frog

(www.nps.gov)
501 points thunderbong | 2 comments | 15 Nov 24 18:16 UTC | HN request time: 0.658s | 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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PittleyDunkin ◴[16 Nov 24 04:53 UTC] No.42154392[source]▶
The frog is not frozen solid.
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PhasmaFelis ◴[16 Nov 24 04:57 UTC] No.42154406[source]▶
Interestingly, you can freeze a rat solid in liquid nitrogen--completely solid right through--and then thaw them out in a microwave and they actually survive. Well, many of them survive. For a while. Okay, it's not good for the rats but it's still crazy that it works.
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plastic3169 ◴[16 Nov 24 07:20 UTC] No.42155016[source]▶
Where can I read more about this? If this was a fact I think people would be way more excited about cryonics. Casually browsing wikipedia suggests that we are not there yet with the ability to thawn large animals or even organs.
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1. terribleperson ◴[16 Nov 24 07:47 UTC] No.42155115[source]▶
I can't source this because I read it years ago, but I believe that there is some science that says that a major factor (not the only major factor, but a major factor) is body mass and volume. Essentially, the speed at which the core organs go from operating temperature to frozen is crucial, and it's also important for them to be deprived of oxygen when that happens. Humans are just... too big.
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2. sriacha ◴[16 Nov 24 16:01 UTC] No.42157023[source]▶
There are ways to adjust cooling rates... for example route the blood externally and chill it like they do in some kinds of surgery.