X-Message-Number: 26953 Date: Wed, 7 Sep 2005 09:53:13 -0400 From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: to E Leitl and J Sparks TO Various: To E. Leitl: Interesting, and thanks for the information. I didn't know at all that David Stodolsky (or anybody, for that matter) was doing this. To Jordan Sparks: You may not know me, and certainly don't subscribe to my newsletter PERIASTRON. However one issue discussed (using scientific work in neuroscience) is that of how we might nondestructively preserve brains. I personally doubt very much that nanotechnology will be needed to revive those vitrified today, but it will certainly have a use in reviving those suspended before vitrification. Of course, given that cryonic patients are suspended due to very serious illness, nanotechnology may also be needed to cure their illness --- that that's going to depend a lot on just what their illness was. I'll add that I'm using nanotechnology to denote the broad class of engineering which includes biotechnology as part of it. AS for whether or not some kind of fixation method would be useful, I'd strongly suggest you look into the molecular events caused by particular fixation methods. Depending on their choice, they could destroy memories completely or preserve them better than any present method. If you write me and don't want to subscribe to PERIASTRON, then I can tell you of relevant neuroscience literature you might wish to read to check out your fixation method. And if no one has studied that question, it may be up to you to do the experiments. I will add (no, I haven't studied fixation methods myself) that I understand one problem is that of getting the fixation into the whole brain, rather than only its outside surface. Best wishes and long long life to all, Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=26953