X-Message-Number: 15247
Date: Wed, 3 Jan 2001 16:51:19 -0500 (EST)
From: Charles Platt <>
Subject: Vitrification

> It remains true that not a single instance of rewaming of a mammalian brain
> from - 130 C or lower has ever been reported, formally or informally, to my
> knowledge, whether by RF or any other method.

Your own magazine published a detailed description of an experiment in
which two rabbit brains were rewarmed from around -80, showing some
evidence that they had vitrified, and virtually no evidence of damage.
This work was a breakthrough in every sense. Nothing like it had been done
before. Details in the electron micrographs of brain tissue were
unprecedented. No cryobiology experiment had achieved such preservation of
ultrastructure.

Now, are you really going to use an arbitrary temperature target to
suggest that this astonishing achievement isn't relevant? And if it is
relevant, why didn't you mention it? I suggest the answer is that you are
motivated by politics, not science, at this point. There is no other
explanation for the one-sidedness of your presentations on the topic of
vitrification.

I am absolutely certain that if CI had conducted that rabbit experiment,
you'd be presenting it as a major breakthrough, instead of quibbling that
it wasn't quite cold enough to count.

> Then Platt suggests that CI plans to pirate patents. Malicious and absurd.

If you would have the courtesy of quoting my original text, everyone would
be able to see that you are indulging one of your favorite occupations:
misquoting someone, and then denouncing the person on this basis.

I certainly did NOT suggest that CI would pirate anything. All I said is
that CI does not have the automatic right to use other people's work
protected by patents.

> I have said repeatedly that, when convinced by the evidence of efficacy, we
> will offer all available options to CI members at the best possible prices;

And I have said repeatedly, that you will only be able to make this offer
if you are allowed to do so, by the patent holders. Since you seem to be
going out of your way, here, to say as many depractory things about them
as possible, the negotiations (if they occur) should be interesting.

Incidentally, you are well aware that companies can be blocked from using
the results of research, because (as I understand it) this is precisely
what you attempted to do yourself, when CI and Alcor paid a total of
$50,000 to Olga Visser for an EXCLUSIVE license to her rat-heart
resuscitating wonder-drug (also touted as a cure for AIDS for a brief
period). Let us hope that the people at 21CM are a little more generous
toward the cryonics community than you were, when you kept Visser's secret
to yourselves.

> And finally I suggest again to readers that they get their information about
> CI and its work and views directly from our web site--which also has links to
> Alcor and all the other cryonics organizations.

I agree, your web site is a slightly more reliable source of information
than your posts to CryoNet.

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