X-Message-Number: 4788
Date: Tue, 15 Aug 1995 23:24:18 -0400
From: "Keith F. Lynch" <>
Subject: SCI.CRYONICS Re: Blue Blood

Garret Smyth <> writes:
> The cracking in large tissue samples is usually attributed to
> mechanical strain because of a temperature gradient. One part of the
> patient has contracted more than the rest and stress is built up.

Is it known for sure that this is the cause, rather than the different
constituents of flesh having different coefficients of expansion?

> ... clean cracks that occur in solids should allow us (or our friends
> in the future) to map both surfaces and work out where they fitted
> together, and then knit up the molecules.

Maybe.  On the other hand, where does the released strain energy go
when a crack happens?  If it goes into extremely localized heating,
it could thoroughly scramble the structure for several microns on both
sides of the crack.
--
Keith Lynch, 
http://www.access.digex.net/~kfl/


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