X-Message-Number: 26640
Date: Sat, 16 Jul 2005 17:21:33 -0700 (PDT)
From: "D. den Otter" <>
Subject: Re: Chemopreservation

Mike Perry wrote:

<<This is a note of appreciation for the comments on
chemopreservation, freeze drying, and such (Skrecky,
den Otter, and also Stodolsky). I want to be fully
informed of possible difficulties and their possible
remedies before proceeding.>> 

Actually, as mentioned in my previous post, I think we
can (and should) proceed with setting up an
organization / institute before deciding on a
(primary) preservation protocol. Even without funding,
space & equipment the organization could be quite
useful as an intermediary between those seeking
preservation (of any kind) and various service
providers.

<<One possibility that has been noted is plastination,
which in some ways sounds great but could have a
devastating downside. I am 
referring to "defatting" that must be done (according
to what I read some months ago), which might destroy
structure encoding memories and such. Does 
anyone know about this?>>

Yes, the defatting is a bit worrisome, and definitely
needs to be looked into further. I'll try contacting
some of the 'experts', though I don't think there has
been much research into the effects of plastination on
memory storage. To the average plastinate user /
maker, this is simply irrelevant. 

In any case it seems that plastination does preserve
organs and tissues 'down to the microscopic level', so
it can't be completely useless. Also, iirc memory
formation is protein rather than lipid-based; the fats
are (mostly?) found in cell membranes and myelin, both
of which may be more or less 
'expendable'.

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