Japanese Scientists Create Transparent Frogs

Japanese scientists have bred what they're calling 'transparent frogs', whose internal organs can be seen through their skins -- although they look more translucent than transparent.

The frogs are the first of their kind and were created at the Institute for Amphibian Biology at Hiroshima University.

The animals have been bred from common Japanese Brown Frogs gathered in frog hunts around the country. Since they don't dissect the amphibians, researchers can continue to use the same frogs to observe changes in organ mechanisms or the effects of certain chemicals.

"Because the frogs remain transparent from their birth to adulthood, organs of the same frog could be studied throughout," Professor Masayuki Sumida says. "This is simple and cheap when studying, for instance, how certain chemicals influence bones."

Only one in 16 frogs they breed is transparent and they have not managed to maintain the transparency to a second generation.

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