X-Message-Number: 2498 From: (Thomas Donaldson) Subject: SCI.CRYONICS Re: High Temperature Cryonics Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1993 23:59:37 -0800 (PST) There were attempts to use such cryoprotectants as sucrose, yes. Their main problem is that they did not enter the cells and so did not provide sufficient protection. HOWEVER, if Douglas Skrecky wishes to do REAL EMPIRICAL work on suspensions, he's welcome to try to method he proposes. It's true that in detail it has not been tried before, and so it's hard to criticise except by referring to other experiments which don't quite match it and so can always be said not to apply. The best test, of course, is successful preservation of a brain. And as a cryonicist, I will let Douglas decide what "success" is to be within wide limits. But those limits are not infinite: I would want some evidence that at least the required information for revival continues to exist. As a simple test, we might try first to preserve a suspension of living cells rather than a whole tissue. That would, of course, require a lot less funding than attempts to preserve any kind of tissue, and still less than attempts to preserve an organ. I hope that my problem with Mr. Skrecky's proposal is clear from these comments. Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=2498