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Flash-Freezing Squirrels
tessaiga writes "ABCNews has an article describing how a student at the University of Alaska (PDF) is conducting research involving supercooling arctic ground squirrels. During hibernation, these squirrels have the ability to reduce their food requirements to almost nothing by supercooling their bloodstream and dropping their internal temperatures to 26F (6 degrees below freezing!). Scientists are investigating how the process occurs without particles in the bloodstream triggering crystalization. The article goes on to mention applications in treating accident victims (to extend the 'golden hour' before brain damage occurs) and human suspended animation."
Super Monkey Collider Loses Funding
Congress voted Monday to cut federal funding for the superconducting monkey collider, a controversial experiment which has cost taxpayers an estimated $7.6 billion a year since its creation in 1983.
The collider, which was to be built within a 45-mile-long circular tunnel, would accelerate monkeys to near-light speeds before smashing them together. Scientists insist the collider is an important step toward understanding the universe, because no one can yet say for certain what kind of noises monkeys would make if collided at those high speeds.
"It could be a thump, a splat, or maybe even a sound that hasn't yet been heard by human ears," said project head Dr. Eric Reed Friday, in an impassioned plea to Congress. "How are we supposed to understand things like the atom or the nature of gravity if we don't even know what colliding monkeys sound like?"
But Congress, under heavy pressure from the powerful monkey rights lobby, decided that money being spent on the monkey collider would be put to better use in other areas of government. Now, with funding cut off, the future of our nation's monkey collision program looks bleak.
Congress began funding the monkey collider in 1983, after Reed convinced lawmakers that the U.S. was lagging behind the Soviet Union in monkey-colliding technology. Funds were quickly allocated so that Reed could spend a week procuring monkeys on Florida's beautiful Captiva Island. Though Reed returned with a great tan and a beautiful young fiancee, he reported that there were no monkeys to be found on the sunny Gulf Coast island. Congress funded subsequent trips to the Cayman Islands, Bora Bora and Cancun, but these searches also yielded negative results.
Two years passed without a single monkey being procured, and Congress was close to cutting the project's funding. It was then that Reed got the idea to utilize monkeys already being bred in captivity. The Congressional Subcommittee for Scientific Investigation was enthralled by the idea of watching caged monkeys copulate, and increased funding by 40 percent.
With a steady supply of monkeys ensured, construction of the monkey collider began on a scenic Colorado site. Despite environmental pressure, a mountain was levelled to facilitate construction of the seven-mile-wide complex. Huge underground tunnels were dug, at a cost of billions of dollars and 17 lives. Money left over was used to build resort homes, spas and video arcades for Reed, his colleagues and several Congressmen.
Construction of the collider's acceleration mechanism was delayed for years, as scientists couldn't decide how to get the monkeys up to smashing speed. Last month, it was finally decided that the collider would employ a system in which the monkeys run through the tunnels chasing holographic projections of bananas. "Monkeys love bananas," Reed said, "and they're willing to run extremely fast to get them."
But now it seems the acceleration mechanism may never be built. With the monkey collider placed on indefinite hold, the huge research facility in Colorado lies dormant. To keep the space from going to waste, Congress Monday voted to convert the empty underground tunnel into a federally funded drag-racing track. The track is expected to create hundreds of jobs in the form of pit crews and concessions workers, and will allow President Clinton to impress important foreign dignitaries with America's wheelie technology.
Despite this promising alternate plan, most involved with the monkey collider project feel the sudden cuts in funding are inexcusable. "It is a travesty of science," Reed said. "I remember the joy I felt in college when I would launch monkeys at one another with big rubber bands, and this project would have been even more enlightening."
Yes, you can tell those squirrels are into cryonic suspension. Last night I went to Central Park and saw a squirrel flash-freezing its nuts.
(With apologies to David Letterman)
dropping their internal temperatures to 26F (6 degrees below freezing!)
Thanks, for a minute there I wasn't sure if the temperature water freezes at was still 32 degrees F...
forgot to add that. They don't seem to have this on the site any longer.
I remember reading a Heinlein book when I was a kid - "The door into summer". This brings back memories. Not quite the same species as he predicted for the pioneering of suspended animation, but small and cute nonetheless. Very interesting.
-FuzzyBear
Flash-Freezing Squirrels
I wonder how Flash manufacturers will react to the news.
A variety of the New Zealand weta (a cool cricket for which the LotR FX studio is named), has developed special proteins that enable it to survive through harsh alpine winters in a sort of hibernation with up to 80% of its body water frozen.
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
Anything to get Sigourney Weaver back in her underwear.
How we know is more important than what we know.
A somewhat unclear excerpt from the article...
You can supercool water by filling a test tube and then slowly freezing it. If the water is kept very still, it may remain in liquid state as the temperature drops below freezing. But it will instantly freeze if disturbed or if contaminated by a particle that then acts as a template for more ice to form.
In a similar way, the arctic ground squirrel manages to keep its body fluids flowing despite below freezing temperatures.
Um. Okay, so you can cool liquid water below freezing by keeping it perfectly still. And in a similar(?!) way, a squirrel keeps its fluids moving below freezing? Sorry. How's that similar? I missed something there. The squirrel is NOT using a similar method if there is movement of its fluids.
"The article goes on to mention applications in treating accident victims (to extend the 'golden hour' before brain damage occurs) and human suspended animation."
The "golden hour" only refers to low blood pressure, with oxygen still available? If someone is unconsious and not getting oxygen, brain damage sets in in only four minutes... right?
This page was generated by a Squadron of Psycho Squirrels for Sevn
For every annoying gentoo user, are three even more annoying anti-gentoo crybabies. Take Yosh from #Gimp for example.
I wonder how Flash manufacturers will react to the news.
Flash? Squirrels? Flash and squirrels?
Yo, I went up to a thug gangster and he was like, Yo motherf***** WEEEE!!!
Will I retire or break 10K?
"My God, it's full of... fur!" - Dave Bowman, circa 2003
It would be very noble to use any development of this student's findings to help accident victims but how long is a voyage to Mars?,I think it is nine months?
I eat my grapes at room temperature, cuz the cold ones hurt my teeth
just shoot them.
Some kid and his mentor catch squirrels, stick 'em in a pickle jar full of ether, slit 'em open, and sew 'em closed after inserting a rubberized, temperature-sensing Oreo, and you guys are worried about little ol' RFID tags in your t-shirts?!
F-you! you...
oh wait...f UNITS
my mistake.
If Mr. Edison had thought smarter he wouldn't sweat as much. --Nikola Tesla
I was reading what he did to the squirrels and was struck by parrelells to alien abductions...consider, the squirrel is looking for food, finds some, then BAM! he's stuck in a cage, moved into an alien environment, thrown in a jar and passes out. When he wakes up he's back in the wild with a new scar on his belly and he can feel an implant. He goes to tell his friends that there are these giant hairless creatures that took him to a strange place and performed experiments on him, but they all think he's crazy.
If Mr. Edison had thought smarter he wouldn't sweat as much. --Nikola Tesla
Just what the world needs - supercooled squirrels that run even faster.
Now no birdfeeder will be safe.
(Somewhere in here, Foamy from Ill Will Press's "Neurotically Yours" should get mentioned...)
'Dude.. check this out. These squirrels totally shatter when you smash them against the bench!'
'Cool! Hasta la vista, Tufty!'
'Very cool.'
'So, what was supposed to be the aim of this experiment?'
'Beats me.'
Well I do.
But think bigger. The moons of Jupiter and Saturn. Are you going to trust a machine to be able to do everything if you think there really is life in the (possible) ocean out there.
And every kg saved is amazingly precious on such a long mission. Hell chilled down and packed in, the astronauts could be treated a bit more roughly with the g's. Freeze em down and blast them out from a rail gun in orbit - thats what the ISS should be for.
The Singularity is closer than you think
Quant
I've been flash-freezing shrimp, cow parts, chickens, and many varieties of fish in a contraption known as the "freezer" -- perhaps Mr. Long could benefit from this knowledge.
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
From the article:
"But before it would be freed, it would become part of an experiment that could someday help suppress human appetites, or even save lives on the battlefield."
In other words, we torture the squirrels
so that fatass armchair-Schwartzkopfs
can get thinner with no effort while
watching the USA shock and awe people
on CNN and FOX.
Good point. I remember reading about these critters years ago, but I can't find anything pertinent on the web right now. I distinctly remember that the supercooling of liquid water has nothing to do with the squirrels' below-freezing survival. Their secret is instead similar to Prestone.
The way I remember it, the squirrels have some kind of a pervasive antifreeze enzyme in their cell cytoplasm, membranes, and fluids. Since it's pervasive enough to keep everything from ice damage, it's probably produced from simple gene expression (i.e. not in a gland or a specialized tissue), which means, you can probably splice the gene into a whole heck of a lot of things. Not just rodents; maybe oranges, and other frost-sensitive crops. Maybe people.
I'm pretty amazed with the unlikelyhood of the research described in the ABCnews article. I'm somewhat ambivalent about the kind of genetic engineering involved, but this is certainly worth looking at.
Who gives a flyin' F if WATER freezes at 32F. What's the freezing temperature for squirrel blood? If it's 20F, then they still have a good way to go.
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
me and Bubba been flash-freezin' squirrels for years. `Cept the ones my sister hit with the shotgun.
Squirrels and buckshot don't do too well...
For those who don't get the joke, it's a Texas thing. Quite a few people I've known had squirrels in the deep freezer. Makes decent stew, just a bit tough.
PC moderators can suck my White pierced, tattooed dick. If you think pride == hate, s/dick/Aryan meat mallet/g.
I, for one, welcome our supercooled rodent overlords!
you must have been that kid who would repeat the newest catch-prase over and over again to get attention from your peers until finally they got so annoyed with you they gave you the biggest grundy of your life.
you haven't been "flash-freezing" them, dick muncher.
I had no idea that users of the celcius scale were so backward and illiterate that they don't even have a clue what F units are. That's really very sad considering how long F units have been around and how short C units have been around.
Oh well, I guess that is why the had to develop the celsius scale. So that really fucking stupid people could tell if they were cold or not.
Research on this has been done on antarctic fish. Apparently, there are "antifreeze" proteins in the fish blood stream. These proteins don't reduce the freezing point of the blood (that would take an intoxicatingly high concentration of chemical) but instead they attach to the surface of microscopic ice crystals and interfere with the growth.
I guess it's too late for some SCO execs I know.
...laser beams (on sharks no less)
We have the Chinese, now squirrels. Before you know it, the voles will start a space program too.
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey