X-Message-Number: 17485
Date: Sat, 08 Sep 2001 18:09:35 -0700
From: Mike Perry <>
Subject: Earliest Possible Suspensions

Fabio, #17472, wants to know if the first cryonic suspensions in the '60s 
were the first that were technically feasible. The answer is no, they could 
have been done earlier but were not, due to lack of interest in this one 
particular application. Liquid nitrogen was available in quantity by the 
early 1900s, and glycerol was used as a cryoprotectant for cell samples as 
early as the '40s. I would give a lot of the credit, when the freezings did 
start, to the publication of Robert Ettinger's *The Prospect of 
Immortality* in June 1964, though there were other contributions, such as 
Evan Cooper's starting the Life Extension Society in December 1963.

Mike Perry

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