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INSIDE THIS ISSUE
1 The Power of Fast, Fearless Choices 2 Practical Strategies for Raising Responsible Teens Major Life Events Require Major Updates 3 Making Your Estate Gifts Work Harder in 2026
Baked Feta, Tomato, and White Bean Skillet
4 The Animals That Outfreeze Death
Nature’s Coolest Survival Trick FROZEN, THAWED, AND STILL ALIVE
The wood frog is the best-known example. As the air temperature drops, it burrows into fallen leaves, letting the cold take over. First, its skin freezes, and then ice spreads through its blood vessels until the heart stops. That should be the end, but when the warm weather returns, so does the frog. Glucose floods in from the liver and acts like antifreeze, keeping organs safe and cells intact long enough to make it through winter. Frogs are not the only ones. Painted turtle hatchlings also freeze, though their survival depends on slowing metabolism rather than flooding the body with sugar. Insects have their own tricks. Gall fly larvae freeze and thaw with every swing in the weather. Gall moth larvae skip freezing altogether; they can stay liquid even below zero because their blood is so saturated with sugar that ice crystals cannot form.
And then we have the microscopic tardigrades. They don’t freeze at all. Instead, they dry out until almost nothing is left. Then, their eight legs pull in, their brains shut down, and they ride out the cold weather. Once conditions improve, they rehydrate and come back to life. These creatures are so resilient and resistant to temperature extremes that scientists have even dropped them into liquid nitrogen, and they come out just fine. The intriguing part is how these animal kingdom survival tricks may help humans. Scientists are hoping to apply the principles to organ transplants. Right now, a heart lasts about four hours outside the body. If we could use the same principles to improve organ storage, that window could expand significantly.
Some animals don’t merely survive the winter. They freeze their brain, heart, and everything else completely solid. Then, when spring returns, they thaw and go about their life like nothing happened. This might be hard to believe, but several species of animals manage this every year.
Nature already knows how to pause life. The challenge is figuring out how to follow its lead.
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