Re: CRYO: Nature's little cryonauts

Gina Miller (nanogirl@halcyon.com)
Mon, 2 Aug 1999 16:08:43 -0700

I also had a childhood experience similar to this one. My adoptive grandparents lived in a desert area in Northern California called Termo. There was no electricity or city water to speak of. Water was drawn in by a windmill of considerable height, leading directly into a trough where the water was then retrieved by gallon jugs, from there it traveled down a pipe into a man made pond.

I would visit this 40 acres of red rock roads and sagebrush land on particular holidays and summers.
In this trough there were approximately five or six 6inched size goldfish. (The largest I've ever seen)
In the winter this water would freeze up into one block of ice, and the fish were frozen still in this state.
Summer came and a few other kids and I noticed that the fish were once again swimming around.

I inquired and was told that they were the same fish. Not believing this story, I took matters into my own hands. I went thru three different solutions and markers before finding one that would stick. I placed blue marks on the sides of the fish, sure enough a year passed and the fish thru the process of winter and summer, swam once again, blue marks intact. They were the same fish.

Gina "Nanogirl" Miller
Nanotechnology Industries
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"Nanotechnology: solutions for the future."

>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 and about an
>hour into the class the ice would have thawed and amazingly, the flies
>would thaw as well and soon there would be dozens of house flies buzzing
>around annoying the teacher. It was always amuzing to have flies buzzing
>about when the land was still covered in snow and the temperature outside
>was just above freezing!
>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