CHICAGO, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- A microscope the size of a football field near Chicago is being used to study why some insects can survive freezing, researchers said.
The Advanced Photon Source and its high-energy x-rays are filming the formation of ice and the freezing of insects for a study at the University of Western Ontario, Canada.
"We're comparing Chymomyza amoena, an insect native to Ontario that survives freezing, with Drosophila melanogaster, because they're very close relatives," university biologist Brent Sinclair said.
The work is important because melanogasters -- common fruit flies -- share much of the same genetic makeup as humans and finding a way to freeze and revive them is a priority of researchers worldwide, Sinclair said.
So far, Sinclair's team has learned that some insects freeze at higher temperatures than others, which implies the ability to survive freezing may be cellular or biochemical in nature rather than because of structural differences, the university said in a release Monday.
