X-Message-Number: 3605
Date: Thu, 5 Jan 1995 18:39:16 -0500
From: "Keith F. Lynch" <>
Subject: Re: SCI.CRYONICS Flash Freezing

> How could we flash freeze an intact brain?  ... The only way I can
> think of (other than installing a nanotech Peltier cooler in every
> cell ;) ) is to perfuse the brain with a non-toxic mixture of some
> *enormously* endothermic (heat absorbing) reactants.

Another possibility would be to perfuse with something that's an
*extremely* good conductor of heat, and to then suddenly expose the
perfusant to lots of liquid nitrogen or helium.  I don't know how
practical this is.

Yet another would be to perfuse with a liquid under pressure, and
to then suddenly drop the pressure so that the liquid boils and
immediately drops in temperature to its boiling point at that lower
pressure.  However, the boiling would produce gas bubbles that would
tend to counter the sudden pressure drop unless they could somehow be
very quickly vented, so this probably isn't workable.

Nanotech refrigerators, Peltier or otherwise, wouldn't work, since
refrigerators merely move heat from place to place within themselves,
rather than destroying heat.

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