X-Message-Number: 5716 Date: Fri, 9 Feb 1996 00:04:34 -0500 From: "Keith F. Lynch" <> Subject: Re: Fast Freeze In #5712, (Rodney Perkins) writes: > The current record is for a the mercury barium calcium copper oxide > (HBCO) compound which superconducts at about 134 K without pressure. > Under hydro-static pressure, this compound superconducts at 164 K, ... Perhaps I shouldn't have said "close to liquid nitrogen temperatures". But my point stands. 164 K (-109 C or -228 F) is extremely cold. There is no value in being able to quickly cool a patient who is *already* at that temperature. Besides, superconductors of electricity are *not* superconductors of heat anyway, despite common beliefs to the contrary. So HBCO would not help cool a patient, even if it superconducted at all temperatures, and even if you could somehow get it threaded through every artery, vein, and capillary. -- Keith Lynch, http://www.access.digex.net/~kfl/ Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=5716