14 DAY TRIAL // Scientists have always wondered how do fish do to swim in the Arctic and the antarctic without freezing to death, and some 50 years ago, special frost proteins were found in the blood of these fish.
It was proven that these anti-freeze proteins worked even better than any household antifreeze, but no one could explain exactly how do they work.
Researchers at Bochum University, Germany tried to uncover this mystery by using a special technique, called the terahertz spectroscopy, that can record the collective motion of water molecules and proteins.
Prof. Dr. Martina Havenith (Physical Chemistry II of the RUB), says that water molecules that are constantly dancing in liquid water, have a more ordered dance when proteins are present, it is like “the disco dance becomes a minuet”.
Temperatures of minus 1.8°C should really be enough to freeze any fish, the freezing point of fish blood being about minus 0.9°C.
In order to discover the way that the natural antifreeze works to protect fish from freezing to death in the icy waters, Bochum researchers analyzed the phenomena within the fish blood.
They saw that an antifreeze protein affects the water molecules so that they do not freeze, and keeps everything fluid.
Scientists did not find any evidence of a chemical bond between the water and the protein, it appears that the simple presence of the protein is enough.
“This effect, which prevents ice crystallization, is even more pronounced at low temperatures than at room temperature,” said Prof. Havenith.
Havenith and colleagues worked with partners from the United States and described their findings in what is called a Rapid Communication, in the prestigious American chemistry journal, the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS).
Co-author Konrad Meister said: “We could see that the protein has an especially long-range effect on the water molecules around it, we speak of an extended dynamical hydration shell.”
The studies within the Arctic and the Antarctic Oceans were funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, AlphaGalileo relates.