Skip to main content

Site Banner Ads

Site Search

Search

Up Here Publishing

Mobile Toggle

Utility navigation

  • Shop
  • Contact Us

Social Links

Facebook Twitter Instagram

Search Toggle

Search

Main navigation

  • Magazines
    • Latest Issue
    • Past Issues
    • Up Here Business
    • YK Guide
    • Move Up Here
  • Sections
    • People & Places
    • Arts & Lifestyle
    • History & Culture
    • Travel & Tourism
    • Nature & Science
    • Northern Jobs
  • Newsletters
  • Community Map
  • Contests
    • Arctic Adventure Sweepstakes
    • Sally Manning Award
  • Subscribe
    • Magazine
    • Digital Edition

Frogs That Come Back To Life

March 2018

What can humanity learn from the miraculous wood frog?

By Jessica Davey-Quantick

Breadcrumb

  1. Home
  2. Frogs That Come Back To Life

It’s the dead of winter and the wood frog has no heartbeat, no brain activity. Covered in ice and frozen nearly solid, it waits for its time to RISE FROM NEAR-DEATH—or rather, to defrost.

“They look like they’re totally dead, and then they’re not,” says Janet Storey, a research associate at the Institute of Biochemistry at Carleton University. Her lab is one of just a handful around the globe studying these cryo-frogs. Up to 70 percent of the wood frog’s body freezes in the winter. But unlike other creatures, their cells don’t burst like frozen pipes. Instead, they draw most of their body water into the abdominal cavity and between their skin and muscle. That means ice forms there and not inside actual blood vessels, where it can cause potentially fatal damage. Storey says wood frogs also limit the total amount of ice that forms in cells by using sugar and salt to trick the cells into expelling water. “The cells go, ‘Holy crap, it’s way too salty outside!’” she says, which causes the cells to dehydrate.

The cold-blooded wood frog lives further north than any other amphibian in North America, reaching into the Mackenzie Delta in northern NWT. Their powers of regeneration are one of the main reasons they’re as prolific as they are. And as the planet’s climate changes, these adaptable creatures are spreading even farther north.

Is there something we can learn from the wood frog? Is there a way they can help our species increase our odds of survival in frigid climates or perhaps even one day colonize a faraway frozen planet?

Currently, individual human cells can be frozen, as well as “anything that’s really thin and flat” like human corneas, skin and heart valves, says Storey. But anything bigger tends to not do well in a deep freeze. “So far there’s nobody that’s been able to freeze an entire organ and get it to survive and function when it comes back.”

Studying the frogs could change all that. Still, the manphibian (a cold-immune human-wood frog cross) remains within the domain of science fiction. At least for now.

March 2018

Who you gonna call? Jill Rivera, zombie hunter. That's who. Photo by John Pekelsky

Are You Ready?

Prepare for the worst with our Northern Zombie Survival Guide

By Jessica Davey-Quantick

Who you gonna call? Jill Rivera, zombie hunter. That's who. Photo by John Pekelsky

January 28th, 2023 January 28th, 2023

March 2018

Photo courtesy of Shawn Kitchen

The Man With Nine Lives

He’s been shot at, hit by a truck and fallen from the sky. Meet Shawn Kitchen.

By Katharine Sandiford

Photo courtesy of Shawn Kitchen

January 28th, 2023 January 28th, 2023

Related Articles

January/February 2023

Francisca Mandeya holds a mbira.

The bridge builder

How Francisca Mandeya has challenged racial and gender inequality in Zimbabwe and the Canadian Arctic.

January 28th, 2023 January 28th, 2023

Up Here Magazine - November/December 2022

Devon Allooloo out near the trapline.

A family’s tradition

Through trapping, Devon Allooloo passes on the joys of life outdoors and self-sustainability to the next generation.

January 28th, 2023 January 28th, 2023

Up Here Magazine - November/December 2022

Devon Manik and sled dogs.

Dances with Dogs

A traditional hunter, a harvester for his community and an Instagram sensation, 21-year-old Devon Manik of Resolute lives with a foot in two worlds.

January 28th, 2023 January 28th, 2023

Up Here Magazine - November/December 2022

Operation in Fort Liard.

The Travelling Vets of the Far North

With a limited workforce, remote geography, and an overwhelming need, providing veterinary services in the territories is no simple feat. So what does it take to care for pets in the Arctic?

January 28th, 2023 January 28th, 2023

Up Here Magazine - November/December 2022

Photo by James Ruddy

Notable Northerners

The gifted Northern linguist. The saviour of peregrines. The gold medal-winning hero. Meet six movers and shakers on our "Northerner of the Year" 2022 shortlist who brought—and are bringing—the North to brave new places.

January 28th, 2023 January 28th, 2023

Up Here Magazine - November/December 2022

Photo by Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press

“If you’re a Northerner, you’re always a Northerner."

“It’s a feeling of belonging,” says Mary Simon, whose lifetime of advocating for the North and Northerners–and whose appointment as the first Northern and Indigenous Governor General–have earned her kudos at home and abroad. Here in the North, we’re delighted to name her our 2022 Northerner of the Year.

January 28th, 2023 January 28th, 2023
Newsletter sign-up promo image.

Stay in Touch.

Our weekly newsletter brings all the best circumpolar stories right to your inbox.

Up Here magazine cover

Subscribe Now

Our magazine showcases award-winning writing and spectacular northern photos.

Subscribe

Footer Navigation

  • Advertise With Us
  • Work With Us
  • Write for Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimers & Legal

Contact Information

Up Here Publishing
4510-50th Ave., Ste. 102
Yellowknife, NT
X1A 1B9  Canada
Phone: 867.766.6710
Fax: 867.669.0626
Email: editor@uphere.ca

Social Links

Facebook Twitter Instagram
Funded by the Government of Canada