X-Message-Number: 26609
Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2005 23:27:16 -0700 (MST)
Subject: Response #2 to D. den Otter
From: "Mathew Sullivan" <>

My father was one of those last minute tough luck cases.  If it had been
anyone else, I doubt that anything would have been done.  I had his brain
chemopreserved at a university 9 months prior to the start of
cryoprotection since there were no formal arrangements with a cryonics
organization.  Part of the delay between fixation and cryoprotection was a
result of the need to develop a protocol to swap out the fixatives.  Based
on the MRI scan of water, there is reason to believe the brain reached
near equilibrium with a terminal concentration of 10 molar glycerol. 
Formal analysis still needs to be done on the MRI scan of glycerol.  To
the extent that I have a comfort zone when or where the brain is cut, I
don t think it goes much beyond the use of a glass knife.  Unlike the
average cryonics case, I should stress that none of the cells are viable
as a result of fixation. My father will likely be dependent on a mature
form of molecular nanotechnology to construct a new brain after decoding
the old one if there is anything to decode.  In regards to room or
refrigerated storage, don t forget where there is water there is life.  If
microbes can live within nuclear reactors, there should be more than
enough opportunity to survive in a bath of fixatives.

As far as RBR is concerned, my actions may be labeled by some as
pseudoscience relative to cryonics, but it is no worse than storing away a
DNA sample which is of little personal value to me.  Maybe all that I have
is DNA, but if I had not tried to do something more, I would have wondered
for sometime to come what might have happened if I had tried.  I the mean
time, I guess we will have to wait and see.  Please note this was an
experiment done on my part with the gracious support of many others and is
not part of any formal procedure provided by any cryonics organization as
far as I know.

Mathew Sullivan

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