X-Message-Number: 33273
From: 
Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2011 00:54:09 EST
Subject: Magnetic Vitrification

This article says Japanese scientists use magnetic fields to prevent ice  
formation down to -10C -- and then ice forms instantly, without crystals. In  
other words, it vitrifies.
 
_http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/01/magnetic-fields-vibrates-water-to.html_ 
(http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/01/magnetic-fields-vibrates-water-to.html) #
 
Now, -10 is not a cryonics temperature, but this still might be  useful. If 
the water stays where it is and does not leak through cell membranes  as it 
does with normal slow freezing, and if it then vitrifies instantly without  
crystals as they say, and if it remains crystal free down to -195 C (and 
during  rewarming), then perhaps this could replace vitrification solutions 
with all  their problems and toxicities. Of course that's a good many "ifs".
 
I've seen mention of this before but never heard that it prevented ice  
crystals, just that it depressed freezing 10 degrees, which by itself is  
nothing. But instant freezing, without time for water to move in and out of  
cells, and no crystals -- that might be useful.
 
This may be garbled, but they do say they can use it for long term tooth  
storage with a reimplantation success rate of 87%. So it does seem to keep 
cells  alive, to prevent damage from osmosis etc., in a moderately 

thermally-large  object. That is, we know we can do thin slices because they 
cool 

almost  instantly, but for larger objects it takes so long to cool that ice 
forms 
and  does damage. A tooth is not as large as a human head, but it's a lot 
thicker  than a thousandth-of-an-inch slice, so it's interesting that the 
cells inside  seem to survive.
 
This is hard to understand though -- the heat of melting/solidification for 
 water is something like 80 Cal/g, equivalent to an 80 deg. change in water 
 temperature. If you just have water at -10C, then even if it instantly 

warmed to  0C that's only enough heat to solidify 1/8 th of it. (I've forgotten
the exact  term for this and maybe the exact value, but I know it's large.)
 
Alan Mole
 
 


 Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII"

[ AUTOMATICALLY SKIPPING HTML ENCODING! ] 

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=33273