X-Message-Number: 15321 From: Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2001 11:52:06 EST Subject: concrete cryonics I was off line for some time, and now I try to keep up with a mass of messages. When far aways from the screen, I was working with cement. That powder has an interesting effect: it dries the skin and the fingers. This is well known, but how it works? There is my answer: The powder is made from very small elements, under one micrometer large. At this scale, the skin is not continuous and let some dust grain to enter the body. These grains have a large surface for their volume and floating molecules in the intercellular liquid gets adsorbed on them. This reduce the osmotic presure of the liquid and a part of it must be taken by nearby cells and another part is flushed in another part of the body. I think this is this second effect who is responsible for the drying observed. Now why talking about that on cryonet? If this is indeed what is undergoing, then the process is the contrairy to the one in freezing: Here, ice starts in the extracellular liquid and concentrate chemicals in the remainning liquid phase. By osmotic effect, water is pumped out of cells and so they are dryed. In the same time, large ice crystals form outside. With an adsorbing powder as cement, we could pump water inside the cells and so, counteract the freezing effect. The dust grains would too act as nucleation sites for ice crystals, so there would be more crystals, each of smaller size. It seems that the large size of some crystals is a big damaging factor, reducing their scale may be benefical, some antifreeze molecules work precisely along that way. If cement or a similar powder could be used as a freeze reducing damage agent, it would be interesting: The cost is very low, it can be found nearly anywhere, there is no FDA control on it and anyone can buy, or use it without asking for permission. I think some simple experiments could test that idea, I would be very interested to see the results. Please don't rush to take a patent :-) Yvan Bozzonetti. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=15321