X-Message-Number: 7370
Date: Sat, 28 Dec 1996 12:13:46 -0800
From:  (Olaf Henny)
Subject: Re: CryoNet #7346, Anatole Dolinoff

Re: Cryonet Message 7364
From: Anatole Dolinoff <>

(text deleted)
>Yes, cristals dont appear always ; yes, they dont
>always kill the cells ; yes, little frozen samples revive but
>because they are little ; no, never a frozen human organ has 
>been brought back to life.  I can only write them :...

You could also write them, that as late as 105 years ago, they 
would probably have written:

"Sure birds can fly, they are little, but look even at an 
ostrich: has anybody ever seen one fly?  Now to think that 
anything as large as a car, made out of materials all heavier 
than air could freely lift above our heads?  The idea is 
absolutely absurd, insane!"

A very dangerous impediment to scientific research is IMO the 
obsession with scientific reputation and the fear of 
repercussions from and ostracism by peers.  While it is 
completely reasonable, even vital to credibility of science, 
that statements of scientific fact should not be made, unless 
the result on which it is based is repeatable and provable.

However, when this conservatism discourages ground breaking,  
target setting in research, it is entirely counter-productive.

The fact, that scientific communities expel members, who enter 
in research, that the community does not approve of, as in the 
case of cryobiologists, who support cryonics, is outright 
medieval. This is worse, than Copernicus' expulsion from the 
church, since he was threatening, with his heliocentric world 
system, the prevailing dogma of the church at that time.  
Cryonics does no such thing to cryobiology, although religious 
leanings may well also play a role there.

Olaf Henny

***********************************************************
The education expenses of a scientist, who is not enough of 
a maverick to press beyond the limits of the 'possible' as 
defined by his professors are wasted.
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