Two weeks ago this animal was frozen solid. If you found one in the woods, packed in the topsoil, hiding under a leaf, you could pull it from the ground and it would feel like an ashtray. You could bang it (lightly) on a table — it would go, "Konk!" like a rock. It doesn't seem to be breathing. It reacts to nothing. It's so dead. Or seems to be. And then, this (I want to call it a miracle) happens ...
I did this piece when I was host of Nova Science Now, on PBS, and the mystery of it still amazes me. In particular, I can't stop wondering how the return of warm sunshine in springtime, which acts on the surface of the animal, triggers a sequence deep inside. There must be a cavalry of chemicals — little Paul Reveres that live near the animal's skin — that are roused by the warmth, then race into the body crying, "The sunshine is coming! The sunshine is coming!"
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