Can you freeze a bee and thaw it out and it still live?

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asked Dec 29, 2024 in Science by over7years (1,100 points)
Can you freeze a bee and thaw it out and it still live?

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answered Dec 29, 2024 by hemisphere (5,050 points)
You cannot freeze a bee and thaw it out and it still live.

While bees can tolerate some extreme cold they cannot actually survive being frozen solid.

Once you freeze the bee solid it will not come back to life because the ice crystals form inside the bees body and damage the bees cells which kill the bee.

However if you only freeze the bee for less than 30 minutes it may come back to life but longer than 30 minutes in the freezer the bee will certainly die.

During cold weather bees go into hibernation but being frozen too long will kill the bee.

Also bees lack the special chemicals called cryoprotectants which prevent ice crystals from forming within their cells.

Some other insects have the cryoprotectant chemicals but bees don't.

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