X-Message-Number: 15405
Date: Sun, 21 Jan 2001 09:59:35 -0500
From: david pizer <>
Subject: An eye for research

I have been reading about human eyes.  They are very complex and in some
ways operate like a brain.  Between the rods and cones are several types of
cells similar or like many brain cells: horizonal cells; bipolar cells;
amocrime cells; and ganglion cells.  There are also synaptic pedicles.
They do networking like brain cells (certain stimulations cause certain
cells to help themselves and other cells to switch on or off).   There are
120 million rods and 7 million cones (receptors), and many more
similar-to-brain functioning type cells in one human eye.  So the system is
complex enough to be able to extrapolate results from that might give some
idea of how particular protocols would have an effect on freezing and
unfreezing the human brain.

I would guess that eyes from cadavers would be very easy to obtain. 

The human eye is a complete system in a way.  Eyes could be removed from a
cadaver and frozen under different protocols in a cost-effective way.
(Also some could be tested before freezing to obtain what is normal
output.)  Opponets to cryonics, and animal research,  don't seem to mind
testing on cadavers that were donated by their previous owners for medical
research as much as testing on non-human animals who cannot give their
permission, and if they could - almost certainly would not.

After freezing, the various eyes could be tested to see how well they
delivered output to the optic nerve fibres that exit the eye.  There are
many established tests to see how well the eye performs under certain
circumstances.  Perfect performance equal to that of an unfrozen eye would
suggest that the right protocol had been used.


David Pizer

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