A FROSTY RECEPTION
When winter arrives in Alaska, the local wood frogs freeze solid. Some seven months later, when spring finally arrives, the thawed-out frogs hop away.
Freezing once would kill almost any other vertebrate, their organs pierced by ice crystals. Yet as autumn sets in, Alaska’s wood frogs can survive two weeks of night/ day freeze-thaw cycles before finally freezing solid. The frogs, like certain other freeze-tolerant fish and insects, produce chemicals that stop ice crystals forming.
Researchers hope that by studying these species they’ll learn how to mimic this ability to store human organs for transplant. Currently organs are destroyed by freezing, and can only be kept for a few hours in refrigeration.