X-Message-Number: 2605 From: G.Smyth Newsgroups: sci.cryonics Subject: Re: Problem with Cryonics References: <2jjrfr$> Date: Sun, 13 Feb 1994 11:30:43 +0000 Message-ID: <> In article <2jjrfr$> writes: > > I heard that cryonic suspension has some problems. It damages >skin cells. Not too recently a woman who payed to have her body >frozen ran out of funds some years after her body was frozen. >They took her out and just froze her head. This gave scientist >(or cryonicists) s the chance to analyze her body. > > Apparenly her skin had been badly damaged. A problem if she was >ever re-animated. (This info was taken from "Thje Great Mambo >Chicken") I believe that some years ago Alcor picked up a couple of patients from another organisation that could no longer afford to maintain them. The patients were converted to neuros for reasons of cost and the bodies were autopsied. This is, at least in part, responsible to the whole debate over fracturing, and whether it would be practical to store at slightly higher temperatures. > > Have any animals been re-animated? I think I heard a rumor >about a dog once. Several dogs have been recovered form near zero centigrade - but they were never below the ice point. Many animals survive winter in or around the tundra by partially freezing. Also, perhaps most convincingly, cats brains were frozen for several years (to -80 cetigrade I think) and thawed. Whilst function was rather impaired, integrated brainwaves were found. This was done in the sixties and I'm sorry to say that the line of research has been very poorly followed up since. Freezing protocols and cryoprotectants are so much better understood these days that doing the same but updated experiment mihgt well give quite noteworthy results. Sadly the Society for Cryobiology bans any cryonics related work, and cryonics organisations are running on rather tight budgets at the moment. I hope the situation changes in the near future. Garret PS Of course there are people today leading quite normal lives who were frozen as embryos. -- Garret Smyth Internet: Phone: 081 789 1045 +44 81 789 1045 Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=2605