X-Message-Number: 2634
Subject: CRYONICS: THERMOACOUSTIC COOLING
From:  (Ben Best)
Date: 	Wed, 9 Mar 1994 02:13:00 -0500


    Page 135 of the 26FEB94 issue of SCIENCE NEWS reports on advances
in thermoacoustic cooling as reported at the annual meeting of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco.
A prototype freezer has been built which cools to -22 degrees Celcius,
and thermoacoustic cooling could theoretically cool-down to liquid
nitrogen temperature. Research seems primarily motivated by the search
for refrigeration methods that do not depend on ozone-destroying
chloroflurocarbons (CFCs). The devices being built concentrate on the
cooling of gases, but the idea is associated with the "singing" of
cooling glass, which has been observed for centuries.

    This work could have very exciting implications for cryonics and
cryobiology. The possibility of cooling that needn't be based on
an "outside-in" thermal gradient (lack of uniform cooling) could
reduce freezing damage. Moreover, freezing rates could be quickened
or, at least, controlled more effectively with reduced dependence on
ordinary thermal diffusion.

    I dearly wish that money were available to explore the possible
cryobiological and cryonic applications of this technology.

                   -- Ben Best (ben.best%)

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