Name: Kristen S. T.
Status: other
Age: 20s
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: 1999-2001
Question:
A friend told me that you could drown a fly in water, have
the fly dead or not moving at all for an hour, and then sprinkle salt on
it and it will get up and fly again. He said something about the salt
drying out the fly! Is this true?
Replies:
Kristen,
Dead is dead. I do not think anyone has yet figured out how to reverse that
situation. However, this is not to say that an organism could not be so
impaired in its function that it would appear dead. Frozen fish (apparently
dead) can sometimes re-animate. Nevertheless, when the spark of life is truly
extinguished, the creature is permanently dead.
Here's a possible explanation which may bear upon your question: Immersing the
fly in water upsets (dilutes by the process of osmosis) the concentration of
crucial fluids in the fly's body. Salt serves as a dehydration agent --
drawing water from the fly's body by that same osmotic process. When the
balance is restored, the fly may recover from the trauma of immersion. Still,
the fly was never really dead -- only badly crippled by the experience.
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