X-Message-Number: 2110 Date: 15 Apr 93 09:39:20 EDT From: Andrew Davidson <> Subject: CRYONICS: Trehalose article The Guardian newspaper (a UK quality broadsheet, known for its left wing bias and poor proof-reading) contained some interesting items in its Science section today. First, Thomas Donaldson might like to note that the Daedalus column can be found there - has it moved from Nature? It was not one of his better ideas though - some nonsense about reproductive competition between left and right ovaries. Secondly, there was an article about trehalose and the way that small organisms use it for suspended animation. The author, Paul Simons, was very sympathetic, for example: "... If life is defined as organisms with a metabolism, then yes, these bugs are dead. But if they are dead how can they be resurrected? There is a way out of this logical absurdity, by redefining life. Put simply, a living thing has organised structure, and as long as the structure has not been damaged, the organism is alive; when the integrity is broken, it is dead. And with that concise definition we may have the answer to preserving ourselves in sugary suspended animation." Andrew Davidson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=2110