Is it true that when the water is slowly heated, the frog will boil alive without trying to get out?

Many heard about the phenomenon of the frog in boiling water: if you throw the frog in boiling water, it will jump out, but if you place it in cold water, which is gradually heated, the frog will adapt to the growing temperature until it is welded alive. We checked whether this statement corresponds to reality.

The frog syndrome in boiling water has become a metaphor for describing the inaction of people in problematic situations: if the situation worsens gradually, each slight deterioration is perceived without protest, thus leading to catastrophic consequences. Political figures Use This term as a metaphor for gradual tightening of nuts and accustoming society to a “new normality”. Psychologists Describe With this term, the process of gradual emotional burnout. Ecologists in this way ExplainWhy, due to the frequent weather anomalies, people are increasingly reacting to climate changes. Mentioning frog syndrome in boiling water is often found in Media, scientific publications, social networks And Blogs.

In the 19th century, several scientists at once conducted experiments on observing the reaction of frogs to slowly heating water. In 1869 it is did The German physiologist Friedrich Golts, who was interested in the whereabouts of the frogs of the soul. The scientist was heating a tank with water with two frogs placed in it: one healthy and the other, beheaded, since it was in the head, according to the assumption of the lifter, the soul was.

For Inquiries: In laboratory conditions, frogs can live without a head as long as with their heads. In the wild, such an animal is doomed: although the spinal cord is responsible for motor functions, in the absence of the brain and organs of vision, the frog is not able to make vital decisions and avoid danger. And in laboratory conditions, scientists help to maintain the life of ahead animal.

Within ten minutes, Golts heated water from 17.5 to 56 ° C. A healthy frog began to look for a way out of a closed tank at a temperature of 25 ° C, and at 42 ° C died. The frog without a head almost did not move until the water temperature reached 56 ° C, after which she made several convulsive movements and also died. In 1873, Michael Foster confirmed The conclusions of the lifter that healthy frogs jump out of the water when the temperature rises above 30 ° C. Nevertheless, in both experiments, the water was heated too quickly - 3-4 ° C per minute.

In 1897, Edward Wheeler Skripcher summed up The results of the experiments existing at that time to heat water with frogs: “A living frog can really die without attempts to get out if water is very slow. In an experiment, in which the temperature rose at a speed of 0.002 ° C per second for two and a half hours, the frog died, never moving. ”

Subsequent experiments differed from the first two water heating rate. Hinzman experiments in 1872 Showedthat if the water is heated quite slowly (less than 0.2 ° C per minute), then the frogs did not attempt to jump out and died at about 37–39 ° C. In 11 out of 14 Hinzman experiences, the frogs were removed from the frogs. But in the remaining three experiments on healthy frogs, where the heating rate was reduced several times, the animals also died without attempts to escape. The same conclusions Confirmed The experiments of the phrases conducted in 1875.

Modern scientists dispute the conclusions of their predecessors. In 1995, a biologist from Harvard University Douglas Melton said: “If you put the frog in boiling water, it will not jump out. She will die. And if you heat the water gradually, the frog will jump out as soon as the water becomes uncomfortably hot, it will not sit motionless for your experiment. ” The curator of the reptile and amphibian department of the National Museum of Natural History (USA) George Tsug in the article “How to cook a consultant next time” declaredthat “if the frog has the opportunity to get out, it will certainly get out”, but if you throw it in boiling water, most likely, the frog will scaldle and die from burns.

In 2002, Victor H. Hatchson, a zoologist from the University of Oklahoma, who studied thermal processes of amphibians, saidthat "the legend is absolutely false." In his opinion, modern studies clearly determined the critical thermal maximum for many types of frogs: when heated water, about 1 ° C per minute, the frog became more and more active, trying to get out of the water, and eventually jumped out if it had such an opportunity. But not one of these modern scientists - Melton, Tsug or Hatchson - was reproduced by an experiment with an extremely slow heating, which was described by Heinzman or Skiller. Either he carried out, but did not admit this due to the scientific ethical standards that have changed since the year before last.

Thus, we can conclude that the statement of the frog in boiling water is true, but only in the case of very slow heating or if the brain is removed in the experimental animal.

Half truth

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. Is it true that frogs were successfully used to determine pregnancy?
2. Is the story of a rooster true, who lived after losing his head for a year and a half?
3. Is it true that cancer does not hurt when they are boiled?
4. The Atlantic, “The Boiled-Frog Myth: Stop The Lying Now!”