X-Message-Number: 6029 Date: Fri, 05 Apr 96 11:30:02 From: Steve Bridge <> Subject: Cryonics "amators" To CryoNet From Steve Bridge, President Alcor Life Extension Foundation April 4, 1996 At the risk of ending up with a double post, I'll repost to CryoNet this message which I already sent to sci.cryonics yesterday. Steve **************************************************************** I don't usually monitor sci.cryonics, since I have so much else going on; but once in a while someone points out a post that I have to respond to. Jean-Yves Sireau posted the following comment and question: >Article 549 of sci.cryonics: >From: SIREAU Jean-Yves <> >Newsgroups: sci.cryonics >Subject: Cryonics researchers are a bunch of amators >Date: 4 Apr 1996 13:50:17 GMT >Organization: Fortitude >Message-ID: <4k0k2p$> >I have been quite excited about cryonics since having come accross this >newsgroup, but having read the bios of the staff of Alcor, the largest >cryonics company (see page http://www.alcor.org/staff.html) I can only >conclude that the whole thing is hype created by a bunch of amators. >None of the staff seem to be serious scientists. > >Is any serious scientific work being done, or has the scientific world >left it to the cowboys out to make a quick buck by pouring liquid >nitrogen on dead people ? > >Jean-Yves Sireau First, I would point out to Mr. Sireau that Alcor Life Extension Foundation is a non-profit foundation. We can't make a quick buck. No profits. Also the full-time staff is comparatively low-paid (and dedicated); no quick bucks here either. The average staff salary is just over $16,000 per year. As President, I just received a slight raise to $25,000 per year, for which I work about 60 hours per week. I took a pay cut of $15,000 per year to take this job three years ago, because the job needed doing. The scientific world in general has indeed left it to comparative amateurs to do cryonics -- not because the idea doesn't interest scientists (it *does*), but *because* there's not much money in it yet. University science departments in the U.S.A. survive on research grants. We have had several offers from research hospitals or university departments to work on cryonics-related research; but the financial requirements are still too high for us to fund. I should also note that Alcor's full-time staff are primarily administrative, with the exception of Hugh Hixon, M.S. in biochemistry. For suspensions we bring in more medically qualified and experienced people, and one of those, a surgical nurse, has recently been helping with research. When Alcor moved from Riverside, California to Scottsdale, Arizona several years ago, its research work had been crippled by several incidents. Jerry Leaf, our vice-president and one of two primary researchers, had a heart attack and went into suspension. Mike Darwin, the other most active researcher, had left Alcor to start his own research laboratory (BioPreservation, Inc, which Brian Wowk mentioned in his response). Finally, the Riverside City Council had issued a prohibition against Alcor doing further animal research of any kind. Once we moved to Scottsdale, we had to rebuild our capability almost from the beginning by assembling new team members, building a new laboratory, and gathering funding. We are making quite a bit of progress in that regard and hope to be publishing at least some technology development papers again soon. I also want to announce that this week Alcor has hired as a part-time staff researcher PhD cryobiologist, Dr. Sergei Ochkur, who moved to Phoenix last year from the Ukraine. Dr. Ochkur received his doctorate from the Institute for Problems of Cryobiological Sciences and Cryomedicine, Kharkov, Ukraine in 1990. He has 14 years of experience in the biochemistry of sperm freezing, and he is eager to begin working on the problems of cryonics. Brian Wowk, President of CryoCare, responded to Mr. Sireau's post as follows: >Article 550 of sci.cryonics: >From: (Brian Wowk) >Newsgroups: sci.cryonics >Subject: Re: Cryonics researchers are a bunch of amators >Date: 4 Apr 96 17:57:54 GMT >Organization: The University of Manitoba > The most prolific publisher of cryonics research in the last >few years has not been Alcor, but BioPreservation, Inc. (BPI). >In fact, at this very moment in the sci.cryonics newsgroup there is >a report by BPI of a major technical breakthrough in respiratory support >and cooling of cryonics patients. BPI is a for-profit company, and has been comparatively aggressive (and successful) at pursuing small non-cryonics research contracts in the past three years. These contracts and other investments have also gained BPI the income to do more cryonics-related research, and we congratulate the BPI staff on their progress. BPI is also fortunate to have two prolific *writers* as researchers. Alcor depends on donations for its research budget; but those donations have grown significantly in the past year, allowing us to hire a cryobiologist. I anticipate those donations will increase as Alcor's research efforts grow larger, so that someday we may indeed be able to have several full-time researchers. You'll be seeing a lot more science from Alcor this year. Stephen Bridge, President () Alcor Life Extension Foundation Non-profit cryonic suspension services since 1972. 7895 E. Acoma Dr., Suite 110, Scottsdale AZ 85260-6916 Phone (602) 922-9013 (800) 367-2228 FAX (602) 922-9027 for general requests http://www.alcor.org Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=6029