FROG-SICLES
Cyronics is the practice of preserving humans, animals, or any biological organism. The premise for cryonics is that frozen humans and organisms will be revived in the future when there is knowledge, and scientific techniques for the organism to live healthier and longer. It is a dream of youth and immortality. Presently, it is only legal to cryoperserve legally dead humans, though ideally it would expand to those living with cancer or autoimmune diseases in hopes of being revived when there are cures. Some people, even fellow scientists, believe cryonics is a wild sci-fi fantasy. Those who believe in cryonics point to various organisms that can freeze themselves and come back to life fully functioning. An organism in which this amazing process occurs is the North American common wood frog.
NOVA, Dr. Boris Rubinsky, and Jon Costanzo give insight on this miraculous phenomenon. The common wood frog freezes for weeks or months every winter when temperatures reach freezing or if they come in contact with an ice crystal with a freezing temperature. Their body physiology goes into a state of freeze tolerance to prepare for the cold weeks ahead. “There is no breathing, no kidney function, the heart stops.” We would think lowering the temperature would cause major cell damage, disruption of physiological reactions, or death. How is it possible that the frog can do this and survive? The wood frog secretes sugar, glucose, from the liver to the rest of his body through the circulatory system, a “natural antifreeze.” Rubinskys says
"by lowering the amount of water that leaves the cell during freezing, the glucose offers protection against the rise in ionic concentration and excessive cell shrinkage, thereby reducing chemical harm."Once spring arrives and temperatures rise, the wood frog defrosts with his internal organs warming up first and eventually the rest of his body. The whole process occurs within a day. Soon after waking up from this almost dead state the wood frog will proceed to another important process in his life, mating.
Another common question is why the wood frogs freeze as opposed to hibernating in a warmer environment underground. Storey claim that freezing is unavoidable for the wood frogs
Unlike salamanders and toads that retreat underground to hibernate, frogs remain at the soil surface in sites with good cover of damp leaf litter to prevent desiccation. When ice penetrates these sites, frogs cannot avoid freezing because their highly-water permeable skin presents no barrier to the propagation of ice.
Exploration into how the wood frog can naturally do this gives scientists hope into using the knowledge to expand on cryosurgery, a medical technique where surgeons freeze unwanted or deadly tissue. Dr. Rubinsky used the knowledge to successfully freeze a liver, transplant it to another animal, and the animal lived!
The common wood frog is another way in which nature astounds us showing us how much an organism can go through. The wood frog provides exciting news for the time window for transplants, surgery, and hope for those who believe in cryonics. The success for cryonics is still far in the future though. The wood frog is only able to survive a few degrees below freezing (-3º), but currently organisms are cryoperserved at temperatures of -130ºC. Perhaps with further investigation of natural freeze tolerant animals combined with increasingly sophisticated technology, a frozen human now may be revived in the future.
further reading:
-- happyfeet
posted by PWH @ 7:13 PM
14 comments
14 Comments:
Overall I liked the post very much. There are some grammar mistakes that could be cleared up, “to live on healthy longer.” and the final sentence could be rephrased. I like how you set up your post with an explanation of cryogenics and then relate the wood frog to it. Also you do an excellent job explaining the process by which the wood frog freezes itself.
chretie6
I thought this post was very interesting and I like how it was connected to human tissues and organs, which is something that may interest us more than the wood frog. The explanation of the freezing process was very clear and concise. This post was very self explanatory and I would like to learn more about this topic if I had the chance.
This is very fascinating! But I wonder, if the frog's heart stops, as well as the breathing and the functioning of the kidneys, what continues to happen? In other words, what is going on in the frog's body through the weeks or months that it is frozen? And why do these wood frogs freeze? Isn't there another way to deal with the cold (like hibernation)? Also, since the frog is frozen for some time, how long does it take for the frog to function normally again after it thaws at the start of spring? Finally, what preparation is necessary before the frog freezes?
Very interesting, kind of reminds me of Austin Powers, where he loses his mojo. Good job with the post, a few questions though that might be good to answer. Whats does the future lie for cyrogenics? Also, curious how long it takes for the frog to become fully functioning, weeks? Also, does all form of life cease in the frog? does the blood freeze?
Good topic and writing though
id: starbuc6
Great post! Some while back I actually watched a video showing how this process happens. I will provide a link to the video below. With more research into this topic I believe that more information can be obtained and possibly someday humans will be able to duplicate this process in the lab using other humans. I feel that this little frog contains very big and important information that will someday be useful for human developement. The part of the post where you talk about how the doctor sucessfully transplanted a liver in a living animal goes to show that research has already started and hopefully has a bright future in the science world.
I also enjoyed this post. Make sure to read it over, there are a few places where commas need to be added or phrasing could be changed in order to make the post a little clearer. I thought the quotes you used were brief and explained what was happening in the frog's cells efficiently. I think this post is particularly interesting because it seems many of the techniques we use medically come from similar, naturally occuring phenomena.
As I began reading the post, I immediately became engrossed. I felt that the post explained the freezing process in the common wood frog clearly and concisely. However, I was left with questions at certain points of the reading, and wished for more detail at other points. It is stated that cryonics can only be legally performed on humans following clinical death. After understanding the concept of cryonics and learning about the ability other animals have to carry out this phenomenon, it no longer seems “unattainable” in the future. I began wondering why this process would be illegal perform, or questioned by a number of scientists. After researching the subject further, I discovered that cryonics was dismissed on the basis that the freezing process creates ice crystals, which some scientists have claimed that damaged cells and cellular structures from these ice crystals leave any future repair impossible. Like the wood frog secreting sugar, glucose, from his blood throughout the rest of his body as “natural antifreeze,” I wonder why scientists can’t apply this same concept of “antifreeze” to cryonics in humans. Wouldn’t this correct the problem of ice crystals in the blood?
Also, the post states that “Upon the touch of one ice crystal, the common wood frog freezes for weeks or months every winter.” I am unsure of what it meant by “one touch of an ice crystal.” I wonder how the wood frog knows when it is time to thaw for spring. I enjoyed reading the post, as it inspired me to read further into the topic.
--DePiano7
This is amazing.That living beings can actually 'freeze up' and regain normal bodily functions is mind boggling.But the whole idea of incorporating the idea to preserve human beings is still a bit confusing.so this person will be removed from this present life and, what if the cure for the ailing disease like cancer takes about 10 years to be found,and so this person is 'resurrected' so to speak and cured.How will such a person continue life normally when that part of his life has gone?well not exactly gone but it was just spent as a frozen up specimen.What about the biological time clock?If that stops too,the person wakes up acting 10 years younger than his age is supposed to be.How will a human being catch up with an absence of that much time(or less) knowing that life in the outside world doesnt stop.It goes on.I still find the concept very inspiring though.Very interesting investigation.
Wow, i was unaware that there was a successful transplant with a previously frozen organ. Figuring out how to freeze and thaw human tissue would help millions; instead of waiting for a fresh organ match, someone could just thaw one out. Although it seems to be in the distant future till we figure out how to harness this technology, Walt Disney believed in it in the mid-20th century when he had his entire body frozen after he died.
Few years ago, I also read an article about cyronics. In which it stated that in the future, our technology might be able to revive a dead frozen human. Although, I believe it is possible to do it. But however, I do not think the society will allow it because it is against our nature of life!
In general this post was very interesting to read. The beginning was a little difficult to read due to grammatical errors, however that didn't take anything away from the content. Reading this post, i started to wonder what sets the wood frog apart from other frogs that it completely freezes as well as how this process came about. It was very exciting to hear that this is a process that may possibly lead to new advancements in the medical field
HEH
Overall, this post was very fascinating. In my opinion it was also very well done. I am extremely interested in finding out more information about how, physiologically, these wood frogs create this “natural anti-freeze?” I am also very curious about the potential benefits of cryonics in modern medicine. Besides practicing organ transplants in animals and cryosurgery, how applicable are such discoveries? And what type of research, if any, is being done to bring such discoveries into the medical world? In other words, how applicable is this to medicine?
JMcNeill
I thought this to be a very interesting topic. I liked how you presented the information in an easy to understand way. I also thought you incoporated the quote into the blog nicely. This is definitely a topic that has peaked my interest and I am sure those studying cryogenics are thrilled to have discovered this phenomenom.
This was a very interesting post. I have never heard of something like this before. It's amazing how this wood frog can freeze. Even it's heart stops and it's still alive. I wonder why the frog does this though. The way you talked about the freezing process was very clear.
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