Hello everyone. I just thought I'd write down a little childhood memory to
share with the list, as those of you who are interested in cryonic
suspension may find it amuzing.
As a young boy, I grew up in the North West Territories of Canada, in a
small town call Inuvik. Inuvik strangely would give me my first introuction
to the idea of cryonic suspension. I lived there for five years, and each
spring the same amazing event happened in our school yard. As the warm
winds started to move in to town, and the snow and ice began to thaw, large
chunks of hard ice would start sliding off of the roof of the school. What
my friends and I soon discovered to our delight were flies encased in the
ice. They had spent the entire 9 months of the winter frozen solid in ice
which formed on the aluminum roofing of the school. At recess we would chip
out dozens of ice chunks holding these flies, and sneak them back into the
classroom with us. Then we would hide them in the garbage pail
Does anyone know how common such types of hibernation are in the animal kingdom? I've heard of frogs and such that hibernate in the ground, but they must still remain warm enough that they don't freeze solid. These little house flies (at least they looked like ordinary house flies) were frozen solid in the ice. There can't have been any liquid in them during the winters. But they managed to thaw out and fly around as soon as the ice melted off of them.
Strange, bu true.
--Aaron
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| Aaron Davidson <ajd@ualberta.ca> http://ugweb.cs.ualberta.ca/~davidson/ |
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