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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."
forgot to add that. They don't seem to have this on the site any longer.
The door into summer was my absolute favorite. The kind of story where the technicaly oriented guy survives intriques of a his slimy lawyer-buddy, gets two hibernated sleeps and one time travel, and ends up marrying a beautiful girl. Dream on, buddy.
The arctic lizards - they must have some antifreeze proteins which inhibit ice crystal nucleation, the same as arctic fish has, so it can stay overcooled for some time. People would have to be given a massive IV infusion of this stuff before this could be used.
I doubt that we will ever figure out - and I suspect that even if we did figure out we couldn't do much about it
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.
The arctic lizards...
Squirrels are Mammals, not Lizards
But are they aware of it?
I doubt that we will ever figure out - and I suspect that even if we did figure out we couldn't do much about it
Google is your friend :)
6 17 17.Ph.r.html
http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/mar99/9219
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?
And most of science uses kelvin but also knows what celsius is.
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
"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
salt should have the same effect (at least to an extent).
Nothing to see here; Move along.
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?!
Yes and No. The golden hour really doesn't relate to blood pressure or any specific vital sign.
:}
It's a rule of thumb for the time from severe trauma injuries occuring to the time you have the patient in an OR. Basically if you can get them there (still breathing and alive) in an hour or less you have a much greater chance for survival.
If the brain is deprived of oxygen yes damage will occur in 4 minutes or less. And actually if there is no pulse on arrival to a trauma scene (car accident usually) the victim will generally just be declared dead without any resuscitation attempt.
Once a person requires CPR even from a non-traumatic medical condition the rate of survival is less than 5%. So next time you see one of those miraculous cpr recoveries in a movie you can look around and pick out the ems personnel by the way they're rolling their eyes and laughing.
Janzert
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...)
>Don't forget that most of the world uses Celcius, and wouldn't have a clue what those strange 'F' units are.
Yes, but the rest of us can always get a clue if we don't already know the formula (F=9C/5+32). Google will also cope with Kelvin (K=C+273.15), but not Reamur (Re=4C/5) or Rankine (R=9K/5)
(Sorry: there should be an acute accent on the 'e' of "Reamur" and "Re", but entering a literal one, using é, and using é all seem to fail.)
IIRC in russia they are doing open heart surgery by packing the patient in ice and cooling the body down to a point where the heart is only beating a few times a minute. At that point they are able to stop the heart and perform the surgery and then restart the heart sometime later, all without damaging the patient and without the need for expensive machines to keep the blood flowing.
You can't win Darth. If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine
'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
Ah, but it's still very polite to tell what kind of temperatures you are talking about, so entire Celcius-using world doesn't need to go to google...
Not to mention, I would not be surprised if a lot of (non-geek) people in southern US for example don't even remember what is freezing point of water in Fahrenheit, any more than I remember what is the freezing point of quicksilver in Celsius... After all it has no bearing in their daily lives in the south where temperature never goes below 0C, so it's just an obscure "random" number for them.
This is exactly correct, as an EMT and firefighter I say you are right on.
Programming is simply the application of logic to creativity
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!
What, do you think that no one in the American South has a refrigerator? Furthermore, 32 degrees Farenheit is a significant number down there, because they know that you can chill PBR below the freezing point of water without freezing it, making the setting of temperatures on your beer fridge an important skill.
The Spoon
Updated 6/28/2011
Well, usually fridges don't have thermometers, or at least people don't check that very often if they have one. And anyway fridges stay a few degrees above freezing point, while freezers stay well below freezing point, so there's never actually any need to measure temperatures around freezing point, other than outside temperatures in the north.
:-)
Though maybe that PBR is a good reason, but I've got no idea what it is, 'cos your link didn't work
Remember, in an arctic environment, the best place to conserve water is in your squirrel.
I guess it's too late for some SCO execs I know.
I'm a firefighter myself, although just a lowly MFR. But I'm sure we've both sat through the same explanation at least a dozen times.
Janzert
As a Floridian I have to say you're more confused than the old people south of me. BTW it does snow here once every few years, thanks.
Jaysyn
There is a war going on for your mind.
It's beer, and the link works fine. Are you being proxied? I'll say it again, it does get cold in the south, just not so cold as up north.
Jaysyn
There is a war going on for your mind.
...laser beams (on sharks no less)
Yeah, though I was in Texas and Arkansas back in '88 when that big Arctic freeze came down over the central U.S. There was about 10 inches of snow in Little Rock, which shut down the whole city. The highway in Texarkana was a solid sheet of ice with a wreck about every 100 yards. What a mess. That was cold, even for the South.
I also had the (mis)fortune to be in Fairbanks shortly after that. Now, it's normally cold up there, but that was the worst cold I've ever experienced. The wind felt like (I imagine) a hurricaine of swords and razors, and even heavy parkas and hot coffee couldn't keep me warm. Luckily, our itinerary took us down to (balmy by comparisson) Anchorage in short order. The temperature was up to only miserable there, and when the wind stopped blowing, you could actually walk around outside without praying for a swift death.
BTW, "PBR" is Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, a long time favorite in the South, now gaining a certain trendy following in the rest of the country.
The Spoon
Updated 6/28/2011
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
Ah yes, but with salt, you need a very large concentration of salt. Your blood might be able to handle that much salt, but osmosis dictates that one of two things will happen to all the cells in your body: they will export water and shrivel up and die, or they will absorb the salt, which contains lots of ions, + and -, which will royally screw with your internal chemistry, and probably kill you.
Whatever is in the squirrels (or the lizards, where did they come from?) has to be either much more effective than salt, to keep the concentration low, or it has to be much less reactive (non-ionized perhaps, like sugar or alcohol) than salt.