Christina Larson

WASHINGTON (AP) – Some frogs found in South and Central America have the rare ability to turn on and off their nearly transparent appearance, researchers reported on Thursday in the journal Science.

During the day, these nocturnal frogs sleep by hanging underneath tree leaves. Their delicate, greenish transparent forms don’t cast shadows, rendering them almost invisible to birds and other predators passing overhead or underneath. But when northern glass frogs wake up and hop around in search of insects and mates, they take on an opaque reddish-brown colour.

“When they’re transparent, it’s for their safety,” said a Duke University biomedical engineer and study co-author Junjie Yao . When they’re awake, they can actively evade predators, but when they’re sleeping and most vulnerable, “they have adapted to remain hidden”.

Using light and ultrasound imaging technology, the researchers discovered the secret: While asleep, the frogs concentrate, or “hide”, nearly 90 per cent of their red blood cells in their liver.

Because they have transparent skin and other tissues, it’s the blood circulating through their bodies that would otherwise give them away. The frogs also shrink and pack together most of their internal organs, Yao said.

The research “beautifully explains” how “glass frogs conceal blood in the liver to maintain transparency”, said a frog biologist at the University San Francisco of Quito, Ecuador, Juan Manuel Guayasamin who was not involved in the study.

Exactly how they do this, and why it doesn’t kill them, remains a mystery. For most animals, having very little blood circulating oxygen for several hours would be deadly.

And concentrating blood so tightly would result in fatal clotting. But somehow, the frogs survive.

Further research on the species could provide useful clues for the development of anti-blood clotting medications, said a Duke University biologist and study co-author Carlos Taboada.

Only a few animals, mostly ocean dwellers, are naturally transparent, said Oxford University biologist Richard White, who was not involved in the study.

“Transparency is super rare in nature, and in land animals, it’s essentially unheard of outside of the glass frog,” White said.

Those that are transparent include some fish, shrimp, jellyfish, worms and insects – none of which move large quantities of red blood through their bodies.

The trick of hiding blood while sleeping appears to be unique to the frogs.

“It’s just this really amazing, dynamic form of camouflage,” said White.

AP – Sport is the forum where it cannot be hidden, where the feelings that are pulsing through someone’s core at a particular moment – be it good or bad, joy or pain, exhilaration or anguish, relief or regret – can be captured in a single image.

It was there with Lionel Messi, maybe the greatest football player of all time, finally hoisting the World Cup trophy for Argentina. The euphoria, unmistakable.

It was there with Mikaela Shiffrin of the United States (US), maybe the greatest women’s skier of all time, sitting on the side of the course at the Beijing Olympics after skiing out in the first run of the slalom race, hiding her face from the world. The disappointment, unmistakable.

Everyone knew what they felt in those moments.

Sometimes, it works the other way. The image makes the viewer feel something as well.

Like a shot of someone from Team Ukraine competing in artistic swimming at the world championships in Hungary, droplets of water splaying every which way off her body while she competes for a war-torn country. You could feel the pride.

Or a shot of two men on the ground, trying to protect themselves from a rampaging bull in Mexico City. You could feel the fear.

Capturing the moment takes no more than a sliver of a second, though the image lives forever. And many from 2022 were simply iconic. Serena Williams in the spotlight at the US Open, presumably for the final time.

Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic all holding back emotion in the same image at the Laver Cup, Federer’s final event before retirement, the enormity of that moment was not lost on any of them as they realised that the greatest three-headed rivalry in the sport had ever seen is now over.

The picture, as the cliché says, tells 1,000 words. Sometimes, the picture is of the words as well.

“I’m a good curler. I have confidence. Let’s have fun,” Japan’s Satsuki Fujisawa wrote on her right hand, in English, during the Beijing Olympics.

The affirmation must have helped; she won silver at the Beijing Olympics, improving one spot from her bronze-medal finish at Pyeongchang four years earlier.

And many needed no additional explanation. Scottie Scheffler, hoisting his putter skyward as the warm Georgia sun shone down when he won the Masters.

College basketball’s all-time winningest coach Mike Krzyzewski sitting on a courtside stool as he led Duke to the Final Four for the final time. Anna Hall, throwing her arms skyward on her way to winning bronze in the heptathlon at the world track and field championships.

Hector Neris of the Houston Astros, leaping to celebrate his team being two innings away from closing out the Philadelphia Phillies and winning the World Series.

The moments were just that, moments. This year is gone. Next year awaits.

DOHA, QATAR (AP) – A World Cup that ended with Lionel Messi finally holding the golden trophy in his hands produced some unforgettable images from the staff of Associated Press (AP) photographers at the tournament in Qatar.

Through the 64 games over nearly a month of football, the AP deployed dozens of photographers to the eight stadiums in and around Doha.

It ended at Lusail Stadium with Argentina beating France in a penalty shootout for the title, and a photo of Messi hoisted above the crowd with the World Cup trophy in his hand.

It was one of a group of photos chosen by staff members as their favourite of the tournament.

There were other memorable moments and other star players.

Like Cristiano Ronaldo, who may have played his last World Cup match with Portugal at the age of 37.

Like Neymar, who overcame an ankle injury to return to the field but ultimately lost in the quarterfinals with Brazil.

Like Luka Modric, who made it back to the semi-finals with Croatia a year after reaching the final. And like Kylian Mbappe, who became only the second player to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final despite France’s loss to Argentina.

The tournament in Qatar has been criticised for years because of the country’s human rights record and it started with more controversy when FIFA threatened to penalise players who wanted to wear an unofficial captain’s armband to promote inclusion.

Four-time champion Germany was one of those teams, and the players decided to take a team picture before their opening match with each holding his hand over his mouth to show they were being silenced.

There were pictures off the field as well, like of the fans who make the World Cup so special.

And even a cricket photo with migrant workers playing their favourite game on a rocky lot in the city with skyscrapers all around them.

In the end, though, it was all about Messi and that World Cup trophy in his grateful hands.