I think that used to be a pretty standard high-school biology demo. Can't say from personal experience, though, because I never had bio in either high school or college.
The upper sections of the frog legs look disturbingly like the dismembered buttocks and thighs of women. That creeped me out much more than the actual twitching.
Oh jeez. That idea just crossbred in my brain with having been reading Ursula Vernon, and now I'm thinking about orc classrooms in which they do the same demo with the lower halves of dead fairies. If you can do anything with that image, I make you a free gift of it. Ew.
That is weird and cool! I don't think I've ever actually seen an actual frog dissection. We usually just do cane toads here in Australia, because there are millions of them and they are better dead than alive.
I have played around with cut off rat tails in biology class in high school, though. Tugging on the tendon makes them move. :D
The actual science of why it happens is interesting, but I'm not sure it justifies everything environmentally and ethically sketchy that goes into the industry of frog use/consumption - particularly when the educational merit becomes questionable when the audience is more apt to appreciate the ew/neat factor of it than any actual lesson in biology. From experience, students come away with, "Hey did you know frog legs dance when you salt them? It's totally gross/cool" but couldn't tell you the actual science of it even if it was mentioned in the lesson. IDK, it has always come off as a ghoulish spectacle and a disrespectful waste of an animal, to me.
Sorry, my major was adolescent ed in Biology, so I grump about these things sometimes. Heh.
People take away what knowledge they can USE. If they only remember the cool/gross factor, at least they have remembered the event. That means if they need the chemical reaction later, they can describe its effect and look up the details. Students with a deeper interest in science will remember more from the beginning. But maybe the cool factor will get someone interested in science who wasn't before.
Besides, salting the legs doesn't interfere with other uses. You could still eat them, or dissect them to learn the muscles, or try different chemical baths to see if anything would recharge the muscles and make them twitch again after expending the latent charge.
I am actually /less/ disturbed than I expected; I think it's because I'm working on the presumption that the frog legs were in the process of being prepped for eating, rather than the preserved specimens I had to deal with in science class for dissection.
I had graduated high school before there was much fuss about dissection in schools, and I think it's fascinating how the lines blurred and changed, from "no live specimens" to "group working on each specimen" to "opt-out long-blipping written report instead", et cetera.
I think students in science should have options, and a written report is a good substitution. Most students aren't going to become scientists or anything else where dissection is really relevant to their job. It's fine for them to skip it and do something else. Students who are more serious about biology do need to work with animal parts, and need to do that individually not just looking over somebody's shoulder. Anyone not comfortable with that should look into a job that does not involve biology.
Even though I *have* to get into work and I looked at LJ 'for just a minute', when I saw this, I realized I *had* to run upstairs, grab chicken legs from the fridge, and one of the big containers of salt that I pour down the toilet to keep roots out of the sewer.
The chicken has gone through the freezing/defrosting process, and is still refrigerated, but why not try? So I did, and.
Nothing.
I gave them every chance. But then, as I walked back, what do I find?
Last night one of the cats actually had found and killed a small frog that had made its way into the house. She's only done that about three times in the seven years we've had this place.
An actual dead frog. Left there *this* morning.
Moving quickly, tried it with the dead frog.
And I realized I was in a "to heck with work" mood. Really. "If God provided me with an actual dead frog *this* morning, then I have to take advantage of it." Detach the legs and skin them, tried the salt.
Well, it didn't work, and I did give it every chance. But I can imagine that there are problems with using legs that weren't harvested in a biology lab, instead provided by a cat.
Anyway, there are reasons why we haven't heard of this in French restaurants, where the legs and salt are in good supply. The legs (chicken and frog) that I was using were possibly not fresh enough.
Hmm.. calcium channel depolarisation occurs as part of the decomposition process, typically around 20-30 minutes after death. [which is what causes cadaveric spasms sometimes.] But that's for humans, and is dependent upon environmental conditions... at a guess based on the lack of response I'd say your frog was dead for at least an hour though...
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ysabetwordsmith
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(no subject)
Date: 2014-06-27 05:22 am (UTC)The upper sections of the frog legs look disturbingly like the dismembered buttocks and thighs of women. That creeped me out much more than the actual twitching.
Oh jeez. That idea just crossbred in my brain with having been reading Ursula Vernon, and now I'm thinking about orc classrooms in which they do the same demo with the lower halves of dead fairies. If you can do anything with that image, I make you a free gift of it. Ew.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-06-27 08:33 am (UTC)I have played around with cut off rat tails in biology class in high school, though. Tugging on the tendon makes them move. :D
(no subject)
Date: 2014-06-27 11:55 am (UTC)Sorry, my major was adolescent ed in Biology, so I grump about these things sometimes. Heh.
Well...
Date: 2014-06-27 04:59 pm (UTC)Besides, salting the legs doesn't interfere with other uses. You could still eat them, or dissect them to learn the muscles, or try different chemical baths to see if anything would recharge the muscles and make them twitch again after expending the latent charge.
Huh
Date: 2014-06-27 02:09 pm (UTC)I had graduated high school before there was much fuss about dissection in schools, and I think it's fascinating how the lines blurred and changed, from "no live specimens" to "group working on each specimen" to "opt-out long-blipping written report instead", et cetera.
Re: Huh
Date: 2014-06-27 05:02 pm (UTC)Re: Huh
Date: 2014-06-27 11:46 pm (UTC)It's largely the /exception/ now.
Re: Huh
Date: 2014-06-28 01:18 am (UTC)Re: Huh
Date: 2014-06-28 02:01 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-06-28 03:10 am (UTC)But yeah, it's pretty fun if you're not faint of heart. XD
(no subject)
Date: 2014-06-27 11:30 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-06-27 12:14 pm (UTC)Even though I *have* to get into work and I looked at LJ 'for just a minute', when I saw this, I realized I *had* to run upstairs, grab chicken legs from the fridge, and one of the big containers of salt that I pour down the toilet to keep roots out of the sewer.
The chicken has gone through the freezing/defrosting process, and is still refrigerated, but why not try? So I did, and.
Nothing.
I gave them every chance. But then, as I walked back, what do I find?
Last night one of the cats actually had found and killed a small frog that had made its way into the house. She's only done that about three times in the seven years we've had this place.
An actual dead frog. Left there *this* morning.
Moving quickly, tried it with the dead frog.
And I realized I was in a "to heck with work" mood. Really. "If God provided me with an actual dead frog *this* morning, then I have to take advantage of it." Detach the legs and skin them, tried the salt.
Well, it didn't work, and I did give it every chance. But I can imagine that there are problems with using legs that weren't harvested in a biology lab, instead provided by a cat.
Anyway, there are reasons why we haven't heard of this in French restaurants, where the legs and salt are in good supply. The legs (chicken and frog) that I was using were possibly not fresh enough.
Thanks for posting this. God's Blessings.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-06-27 03:56 pm (UTC)[Next on CSI:internet!]
Well...
Date: 2014-06-27 04:46 pm (UTC)But I would've tried it too.