ENST: What Is Homeostasis?
All life must maintain
equilibrium as the environ-
ment constantly changes
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Examples of how living things operate in a dynamic world were shared by CEH editor David Coppedge in a recent article for Evolution News. The engineering requirements for homeostasis are astonishing.
Homeostasis Is More than Treading Water
by David Coppedge
Evolution News & Science Today, July 2, 2025
If you were to watch a person treading water in a murky lake, you might assume she is standing on a shallow bottom. She might look calm and be talking to you, but below the surface a lot of kicking and stroking going on. That’s a bit like homeostasis, a broad term for maintaining internal stability in a dynamic environment. Here we will look at recent discoveries showing the complexity of systems required to keep organisms functioning while the surroundings are changing.
Frog Breath
Consider the case of a frog maintaining its breathing reflex while the temperature is dropping. Like us, it must keep the oxygen coming in and the CO2 going out, but without endothermy, breathing might drop to a standstill in the cold or accelerate too quickly when the temperature rises. What keeps the frog happily breathing?
In Current Biology, Tara A. Janes and Richard Kinkead review a study by Cannon and Santin also in Current Biology. The researchers identified specific neurons, signals and receptors involved in maintaining the rhythm. Janes and Kinkead comment that breath homeostasis is anything but boring….
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