5 ms·
>The squirrels Drew studies, for example, curl up into little balls and plummet from 99 degrees to 27. This drops their basal metabolic rate by about 99 percent
by dTal 6y ago
>The squirrels Drew studies, for example, curl up into little balls and plummet from 99 degrees to 27. This drops their basal metabolic rate by about 99 percent.
Not sure if this is meant to be C or F, but either the squirrels are boiling hot normally, or frozen solid while hibernating.
- StavrosK 6y agoIt is actually F.
- deweller 6y agoFahrenheit From the study: > ...their core body temperature falls to as low as −2.9 °C, or 2.3 °C below the equilibrium freezing point of their body fluids. At these body temperatures, arctic ground squirrels avoid freezing by supercooling, which refers to the metastable state that fluids enter when cooled below their crystallization temperature in the absence of catalysts of freezing, or nucleators.
- dTal 6y agoThank you, +1 for reading the study I was too lazy to look at.
- wodenokoto 6y agoDoes that mean that if you kick a hibernating Arctic ground squirrel It will freeze solid? That sounds both fascinating and horrible at the same time.
- hsartoris 6y agoEdit: don't look at this reply, look at the answer with a direct citation from the article. Almost certainly Fahrenheit. 32F is only the freezing point for pure water; most impurities reduce that. Now 27F is still pretty low, as most seawater freezes around 28F, but could be done no problem with the right chemicals. The key is making sure no areas have pure enough water to crystallize and expand, which is what destroys cells and other small structures.
- peterwoerner 6y agoI thought 0F was the temperature the Baltic Sea froze at. Which is why Dr. Fahrenheit chose that as his zero.
- siberianbear 6y agoThat can't be right, because salt water freezes at a point a few degrees below fresh water. Now, 0F is defined where fresh water freezes.
- dpoochieni 6y agoThat's patently false, 0C fresh water freezes 0F a specific brine freezes
- fiblye 6y agoIf squirrels survived 99c, it’d be impossible to cook them. Those dudes would probably be stockpiling nuts inside volcanoes.
- dvh 6y agoIf squirrels survived 99c, they would be traveling back in time.
- goatinaboat 6y agoFTA: When she and I spoke, it was 35 degrees Fahrenheit below zero (without wind chill) at her lab in Fairbanks, at 2:00 in the afternoon (just before sunset). Suddenly my case for hibernation felt trivial. All subsequent temperatures are in that unit unless otherwise specified
- meritganset 6y agoYou honestly couldn't make the inference based on the scale of the numbers? What was the point of your comment?
- hinkley 6y agoI believe there's a frog in Alaska that essentially has antifreeze for blood to prevent ice crystals. The squirrel must use a similar trick.