X-Message-Number: 19639 Date: Mon, 29 Jul 2002 09:33:54 -0700 (PDT) From: Driven FromThePack <> Subject: detailed, cryonics-friendly story in USA Today By writer Tim Friend at URL: http://www.usatoday.com/news/science/2002-07-28-vitrification_x.htm Considering the wide coverage of USA Today, this is a very significant article. First paragraph: >> Baseball legend Ted Williams may have dreamed of a future where he could be taken out of frozen storage and thawed for extra innings in life. But the real-world science of cryobiology is only stepping up to the plate. << Great close to first para... more: >> But chances are there will be no at-bats for Ted for a long time. Mainstream cryobiologists have yet to figure out how to freeze and thaw a single organ, although the field is making remarkable progress using a technique called vitrification. Organs and tissues might not seem like much compared with bringing the dead back to life, but there are significant medical implications. >> Mentions a "prominent cryobiologist" and my all-time favorite research lab: >> For now, the goal of cryobiology is the cold storage of organs and tissues destined for transplantation, says Greg F*hy, director of research at 21st Century Medicine in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. Heart, lungs, livers, pancreases and kidneys are all in short supply, so biotechnology companies are actively working at growing new ones from scratch. When that day comes and many experts say it could be within a decade biotech companies will need a way to store their inventories. Cryobiology is the ticket. >> This "Tim Friend" is raelly tuned into teh cryonics lexicon: >> Logic suggests freezing is the thing to do. But the body is a small ocean trapped in the flesh about 80% of the body is slightly salty water. When water freezes, ice crystals form. When you freeze an organ, the crystals form in the spaces between cells and wreak havoc. >> If there is any one word that is crucial to cryonics, "logic" would be it.... A mention of another great cryobiologist: >> Brian Wowk, a physicist at 21st Century Medicine, has discovered a couple of compounds the old-fashioned way by luck that have "an uncanny ability to block the ability of water to freeze." At the moment, Wowk and Fahy can cool a rabbit kidney to minus-7 degrees for about one hour, rewarm it and transplant it as a working kidney. But the temperature is not cold enough to achieve vitrification. "Successfully cooling to minus-7 degrees without injury to the tissues is allowing us to debug the fine details of the process before we make the final big step down" to minus-180, Fahy says. That is as good as it gets in cryobiology at the moment, and it was no simple task. >> And we come full circle at the end: << As for Ted, Alcor Life Extension Foundation reportedly has the body. Alcor has adopted Fahy's vitrification technique, so presumably the greatest hitter who ever lived (and may live again) will soon have a glass arm and body. >> I have not seen this article before, I think. Google news search turned it up as being printed 7 hours ago by USA Today. If it gets picked up by other outlets (and with the slow news day it looks like we have today, I expect it will), this would be some excellent coverage. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Health - Feel better, live better http://health.yahoo.com Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=19639