X-Message-Number: 4767
Date: Fri, 11 Aug 1995 23:25:59 -0400
From: "Keith F. Lynch" <>
Subject: Re: nature's cryonics (IV)

Eugen Leitl <> writes:
> Three decades ago, Becquerel was able to revive certain nematodes,
> rotifers, and tardigrades after they had been exposed to temperatures
> as low as 0.05 K. He estimated that at this low temperature metabolic
> processes, if they occur at all in the anhydrobiotic state, must
> proceed at only about 10^{-7} the rate of normally metabolizing
> specimens.

This seems to conflict with Hugh Hixon's _How Cold is Cold Enough_
(http://www.c2.org/~kqb/archive/0015) which says that metabolism and
all other chemistry is slowed by a *vastly* greater factor than that,
even at liquid nitrogen temperatures, around 180 K.

Does anyone know which is correct?

> Finally, although anhydrobiosis may be viewed as an adaptational
> solution primarily to drought conditions, another important corollary
> of this state is a _tremendously increased tolerance to numerous other
> harsh environmental factors_. Anhydrobiotic organisms aree famous for
> their tolerance to extremely low, or extremely high, temperatures and
> pressures; they are tolerant also to organic chemicals, toxins, and
> anoxia.

Sounds like a good thing to add to the human genome.  I've long envied
roaches their sheer animal vitality.  Can roaches survive dessication
and/or extreme cold?  I know they can survive lots of remarkable things,
such as being pinned firmly to the wall through their middle for a week.
--
Keith Lynch, 
http://www.access.digex.net/~kfl/


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