X-Message-Number: 6691 From: Brian Wowk <> Date: Mon, 5 Aug 1996 16:21:52 -0500 Subject: Reply to Olga Visser First, let me thank Ms. Visser for expressing her public support of cryonics. This addresses critics, such as Steve Farmer, who do not believe there are real scientists who believe that brains can be cryopreserved. Second, let me apologize for any misunderstandings about the nature of Ms. Visser's technology. The only information available about the technology has been newspaper articles and a few brief sci.cryonics posts. All these reports indicated that only rat hearts had been preserved, and at very high cooling rates ("flash freezing"). This information was confirmed by Ms. Visser's colleague, Dr. du Plessis. If the technology has since been verified on other organs, and larger organs at slow cooling rates, I am delighted, and eagerly await the report. I strongly encourage Ms. Visser to publish on the Internet. Publishing preprints on the Internet is common practice in sciences like physics, and need not preclude publication in journals if the text is re-written so as to avoid copyright infringement. Ms. Visser, your patent protection is in place, your research is apparently highly advanced, so please tell us exactly what you have done! Until your message attacking me this weekend, there was no reason for me to believe that your work was applicable to brains because of the cooling rate issue. Paul Wakfer's Prometheus Project does not seek to re-invent what you have already accomplished. The Project seeks to adapt the best organ cryopreservation technologies available to the problem of brain cryopreservation. The only "bias" in the Project is a bias toward the most promising technologies, as selected by available experts. (And, no, there is not only one expert available.) If your technology will work on brains, then that's wonderful. But the Prometheus Project will still be necessary to do the neuroscience experiments necessary to VERIFY that your technology works on brains. The Project is anticipated to start in 1998, so that is more than enough time for you to make the case that your technology should be investigated. If your technology does prove to be a breakthrough for brain preservation, and you choose not to make it available to CryoCare because of your dislike of me, I'll resign as leader of CryoCare! My most sincere interest *is* to advance cryonics technology as rapidly as possible. ---Brian Wowk P.S. When you say Steve Farmer is "a man after your own heart", I hope you are only refering to your shared dislike of Brian Wowk. Steve Farmer is a bitter opponent of cryonics. *************************************************************************** Brian Wowk CryoCare Foundation 1-800-TOP-CARE President Human Cryopreservation Services http://www.cryocare.org/cryocare/ Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=6691