X-Message-Number: 1405
Newsgroups: sci.cryonics,sci.med,sci.bio
From:  (David Heisterberg)
Subject: Re: After 5,000 years of primitive cryonics
Message-ID: <>
References: <>
Date: Mon, 7 Dec 1992 16:45:48 GMT

In article <>  (Nick Szabo) writes:
>Can we learn anything about long-term organ storage or cryonics 
>from the "ice man" who was freeze-dried at -10C for 5,000 years?  
>
>* Does his chemical degradation match the rule of
>  "factor of two in temperature means factor of ten
>  in rate of decay"?  Isn't decay a more complex
>  function of mobilized enzymes and parasites?

There is a rule of thumb in chemistry that, for every 10C drop in
temperature, the rate of reaction is halved.  Is that what you're
referring to?  A "factor of two" in temperature doesn't mean any-
thing unless you're using an absolute scale.  And in this case
we're talking about 263K vs. say, 300K, so we aren't anywhere near
a factor of two.
-- 
David J. Heisterberg ()       What men value is not rights
The Ohio Supercomputer Center            but privileges.
Columbus, Ohio                             -- H.L. Mencken

[ Message #0015 "How Cold Is Cold Enough" by Hugh Hixon explains the
  Arrhenius equation for reaction rate as a function of temperature.
  The article also includes numerical results over a wide range of
  temperatures. - KQB ]

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