After dusk, infinite silence descends on a deep forest in Canada. A cold wind silently descends through the few leaves covered with snow in the gaps between the trees. A breathless breath seems to touch nature. If someone peeked under the leaves in this winter solitude, they would see—a small frog, almost completely covered in snow like wood, its eyes half-open, dull—yet it is not dead, it is sleeping in the snow.
This frog's name is 'Wood Frog' and its scientific name is Rana sylvatica.
The cold forests of North America, Alaska, Canada, and even the areas near the poles are its kingdom.
Where winter means not only cold, but also the touch of death, this small creature has defeated death itself with the science and adaptation of its body.
The secret to surviving freezing-
When winter comes, the water in the forest ponds freezes and turns into ice, and a layer of snow also falls on the ground. Most animals seek shelter, but many die.
But the wood frog chooses another path — it freezes itself.
Yes, it literally freezes!
When the temperature drops below zero, the frog's skin and stomach begin to freeze.
Its blood stops flowing, its heart almost stops, it stops breathing, and its eyesight goes dull.
To the outside world, it is a frozen, dead frog!
Yet, a secret science continues to work silently inside its body — its liver breaks down glycogen to produce glucose, which mixes with the blood, the sweet liquid that is actually its life preserver.
This glucose is its antifreeze — it does not allow the water in the protoplasm inside the cells to freeze, protecting the cells from bursting into ice.
As a result, even though a layer of ice forms on the outside of the frog's body, the cells inside remain silent but intact — as if in a "frostbite" written by nature.
The ice melts, life awakens!
When the first sun of spring hits the ground,
The ice layer begins to melt. Gradually, warmth returns to the wood frog's body. The ice melts, blood flows again throughout the body, as if its heart is beating for the first time, and suddenly—it jumps up in joy to be back to life!
One moment ago, it was a dying iceberg; the next moment, it is a living frog, calling out to its mate. Such a mysterious rebirth of life is truly rare in the world.
This frog is like an unspoken poem of nature—Sukanta's poem is slightly modified and says, "Not inert, not dead, not a creature of darkness, I am a living soul, I am alive in the ice."
The wonder of science.
Scientists have studied this frog for years.
Based on the chemical changes that occur in its body, research is now underway in a new science called cryobiology, where attempts are being made to preserve living cells, tissues, and even organs in ice and bring them back to life later. This wood frog is teaching them that nature has done the work effortlessly,
Maybe one day, human science and technology will do the same. This wood frog teaches us that sometimes life stops, but life is not easily lost. Even the silence like death can be filled with life. Our minds sometimes go through difficult times, yet somewhere or other, there is a little warmth, which brings us back to the light of life.
So, the story of the wood frog is not just the story of an animal—it is a story of adaptation. A silent story of survival in the struggle of life.
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