X-Message-Number: 1032 Date: Mon, 20 Jul 92 19:36:54 PDT From: (Daniel Green) Subject: Re: Ice crystal damage For Cryonet. Editing/cross-posting ok. I've been reading the cryonics mail list for some weeks now. I have a question that I've been watching for some mention of but it seems that no one else is concerned. This makes me suspect that it is a dumb question but I can't see why. It is simply this: Why the assumption that freezing is the best way to preserve the person/information? What's wrong with formaldehyde or some other such substance/technique? If I were to have myself preserved, it would be with the hope of preserving my information and not my body (for future scanning) so I'd not be concerned with poisoning my tissues. It seems that such a solution would be far safer and cheaper than freezing which takes constant care. - Daniel Green [ Daniel, If I recall correctly, one of the early issues of Periastron concerned a proposal by Ben Best to combine chemical fixation with permafrost interment as an alternative to liquid nitrogen preservation. Unfortunately, a lot more research needs to be done to show that this approach has any promise. (Long-term stability of low-level structure is a major issue.) You may also want to see Hugh Hixon's article "How Cold Is Cold Enough?" (message #0015). - KQB ] Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=1032