X-Message-Number: 6396 From: Date: Wed, 26 Jun 1996 14:12:29 -0700 (PDT) Subject: SCI.CRYONICS Trans Time newsletter \tt\newsletter\v5n3\vol5num3.win THE TRANS TIMES Life Extension through Cryonic Suspension ----------------------------------------------------------------- Volume 5 Number 3 June 1996 Reviving Mammals from Sub-zero Storage by Hal Sternberg, Ph.D. We are developing techniques to reversibly freeze whole animals. Our ability to revive hamsters from sub-zero storage has progressed steadily. The procedure we use is as follows: The body temperature of small hamsters is lowered. Their blood is replaced with a freeze protective solution. Then the animals are placed in a bath maintained at sub-zero temperatures. Later, the animals are removed from the bath and thawed. The animals are perfused with a physiological solution, Hextend, to help eliminate the toxic freeze protective solution. Blood is perfused back. The animals are rewarmed and revived. In initial experiments we found animals could revive after being in a bath at -5 degrees C for 30 minutes. Then later we could revive hamsters after 30 min. at -10 degrees C, and soon after we could revive hamsters after being in a bath for 30 min. set at -20 degrees C. These results have been encouraging. As mentioned previously, the most exciting and amazing finding of these experiments is that animals revive despite extensive freeze damage to the brain. There are specific lesions that appear as micro-hemorrhages (small red spots) that are only observed after freezing and never otherwise. These lesions are indicators that freezing has occurred. We have observed these lesions throughout the cortex and down through the diencephalon and brain stem in revived hamsters who were subsequently necropsied. Thus, it is clear that the nervous system can recover, to a certain extent, after massive and widespread freezing. There appears to be a high degree of tolerance to freezing of the mammalian nervous system (and perhaps other tissues) for short durations. We have not yet achieved revival of animals from freezing after relatively long durations (i.e., 6 hours, 24 hours, and longer). So perhaps formation of initial ice crystals may not be too destructive while ice crystallization/ recrystallization with time appears to become increasingly destructive. We are trying to learn how best to reduce the freeze damage (micro-hemorrhages) observed in the brain and we are examining approaches to increase the time and decrease the temperature to which whole mammals can subsequently be revived to consciousness. These approaches may also involve influencing the crystallization / recrystallization phenomenon in an effort to reduce freeze damage with time. Although we discuss here lesions visualized in the brain, it is likely that other organs are similarly damaged. The damage is more difficult to visualize in other organs since they are reddish while the brain is whitish. So, upon reducing lesions which are easily recognizable in the brain, other organs such as the heart may be similarly influenced. Perhaps more damaging than the freezing process, and length of time frozen, is the time required to thaw. One area of research that might be useful concerns the development and understanding of substances that influence the recrystallization phenomenon. Such substances may allow freezing for long durations and thawing without recrystallization damage. Certain proteins have been claimed to possess ice-nucleation activities, and other proteins have been said to possess antifreeze activity. More research is needed in this area to determine if these said activities are reproducible and under what circumstances they may influence ice crystallization. If they have true and utilizable activity, the active sites should be further characterized. While there has been research in this direction, it has been limited. These are some current thoughts on approaches which may help to evolve and improve this technology. Newton and the Logarithmic Spiral by Art Quaife, Ph.D. I recently enumerated the virtues of the logarithmic spiral as a symbol of immortality [1]. I reported Daniel Bernoulli as the most ardent student and advocate of this curve. Now I find earlier mention of the logarithmic spiral in the most important book ever written by the greatest genius that ever lived: Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, by Isaac Newton. In Book 2, Proposition XV and XVI, Newton addresses a problem that is still of interest today. The density of air is inversely proportional to the distance from the center of the earth. What is the effect of air drag on a satellite? Newton's correct answer in 1687 was Proposition XV: If the density of a medium in each place thereof be inversely as the distance of the places from an immovable centre, and the centripetal force be as the square of the density: I say, that a body may revolve in a spiral which cuts all the radii drawn from that centre in a given angle. Note that under Newton's two assumptions, the centripetal force varies inversely as the square of the distance from the centre; i.e., as the force of gravity. Newton gives one of the characteristic properties of the logarithmic spiral, that it is *equiangular*. The Corollaries to this Proposition spell out various details of the motion. This result, and the accompanying proof, is one of the myriad brilliant gems to be found in Newton's masterpiece. Still not everyone is familiar with all of its results-the above Proposition XV was independently re-derived by Morduchow and Volpe in 1973! [1] Quaife, A. The Logarithmic Spiral. THE TRANS TIMES 4:6, 6-7 (December 1995). [GRAPHIC OMITTED] Why So Few People Are Frozen by Art Quaife, Ph.D. There are many reasons for the slow acceptance of cryonics. Public ignorance of science may not be first on the list, but it is near the top. The National Science Foundation recently quizzed 2006 adult Americans concerning their knowledge of elementary science. Here are several true or false questions they posed. "Electrons are smaller than atoms." Just 44 percent answered "true." "Human beings, as we know them today, developed from earlier species of animals." Only 44% said "true." "The earliest human beings lived at the same time as the dinosaurs." Just 48% said "false." When asked "How long does it take for the Earth to go around the sun: one day, one month, or one year?", only 47% correctly answered "one year." Only 9% of those surveyed could explain what a molecule is. Just 2% understand what a scientific theory is. About 20% think that the sun rotates around the earth--453 years after Copernicus published De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium! *Brighter Side* There were a few glimmers of hope from the survey. Despite the appalling ignorance, 72% believed that scientific research is worthwhile. This seems to be a significant change from the early 1970s, when as a side-effect of the Vietnam war there was widespread revulsion against technology. Furthermore, medical discoveries were rated the most interesting of science topics by 69% of those surveyed. Cryonics Unity Power by Shane Mohler The recent introduction of new businesses into the life extension field is indicative of the growing public awareness regarding such issues. The steadily growing ranks of cryonicists provide an ample "breeding ground" for activists and entrepreneurs to become impelled to take public leadership roles in advancing life extension causes. CryoSearch, Biostasis Associates, the new Life Extension Society and other organizations established over the last half-decade advance the cause of cryonics through research, improved suspension response, and foreign market development. As just a few of the new companies formed recently, they indicate the success potential already developing in a public awakening to death's non-inevitability. Indeed, in secular Westernized republics, the untapped market potential for start-up operations in suspension services is quite lucrative. With such new organizations being developed and more on the way, perhaps it is time for a new Federation of Cryonics Societies (FOCS) to convene. Such an entity could mediate misunderstandings and facilitate research cooperation among the major biosuspension players. Additionally, an inclusive diplomatic forum could provide industry self-regulation in lieu of government regulatory action. As a voluntary assessment bureau, the diplomatic assembly could develop annual consumer rating sheets for the various assembly members, as well as lobby for passage of pro-cryonics legislative proposals like the Uniform Biostasis Act and the Uniform Cryonics Disposition Act. Acting as a business forum to improve the public attitudes and professional status of cryonics, the renewed FOCS could develop a code of ethics (a la the National Selected Morticians Code of Good Funeral Practice) to reinforce the fact that cryonics is a well-founded part of any society worldwide. *Just for the Fun of It* Let's Make a Deal by Art Quaife, Ph.D. This month we challenge our readers with a puzzle. It has nothing to do with cryonics,ut solving it requires a small amount of clear thinking, which is healthy for all of us. You are a contestant in a game show, and there are three closed doors on stage. Behind one door (chosen at random) is a car as a prize; behind the other two are goats as booby prizes. Host Monty Hall knows which door hides the car, but you have no way of knowing. Monty truthfully tells you "Choose a door. I will then open another door to reveal a goat. (Since there are two goats, Monty can always do that. If both unchosen doors hide a goat, Monty mentally flips a coin as to which to open.) I will then offer you a chance to switch to the remaining door." You select (say) door #1. Monty opens door #3 revealing a goat, and offers you the chance to switch to door #2. Question: Should you switch? What is your probability of winning if you switch as opposed to if you stick? Justify your answer. *Super Prize!* We offer a free two-year subscription to THE TRANS TIMES for the earliest postmarked correct entry. This puzzle received some notoriety several years ago--more on that in our next issue. If you are already familiar with the puzzle and thus know the answer, please disqualify yourself from entering. Only enter if you are working this through for the first time. 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