X-Message-Number: 16957
Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2001 09:45:33 -0400
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: CryoNet #16941 - #16956

Hi everyone!

I say this as someone who's read a lot of cryobiology but hasn't 
experimented at all, but Ivan Snyder seems to be making what is
a wrong statement about why it's so hard to bring someone (or some
normally not frozen animal) back. Basically the problem isn't
that cell walls are burst by the growth of ice crystals, but that
ice crystals take the water out of the cells and leave lots of 
other chemicals which need water ... so that if the animal is
simply warmed up, its cells no longer work. I do not exclude some
bursting of cell walls, but if I understand the situation it
is not the major problem.

Perhaps others with more personal experience of this issue, such
as Mike Darwin or even Greg Fahy, would give a much more elaborate
explanation ... but simple destruction of cell membranes by 
freezing with in the cell seems not to be the most serious problem.

			Best wishes and long long life,

				Thomas Donaldson

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