X-Message-Number: 8966
From:  (Randy Smith)
Subject: Anyone know about this?
Date: Mon, 05 Jan 1998 02:10:06 GMT

BRITAIN<Picture: Line>




=46rom the latest Sunday London Times:

>BRITAIN<Picture: Line>
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>Frozen baboons returned to life=20
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>by Lois Rogers=20
>Medical Correspondent=20
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>SCIENTISTS have unlocked the secret of suspended animation by successfully 
reviving baboons hours after their bodies were packed into =
crates of ice.=20

Yes, but at what temp? This has already been done, hasn't it?

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>The breakthrough, which holds huge implications for the battle against disease 
and ageing, will allow humans to preserve their ice-cold bodies =

in suspended animation and wake up years later in the same physical 
condition.=20
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>It has aroused the interest of space scientists investigating the possibility 
of interstellar travel, allowing human exploration of =
galaxies many light years away.=20

I woonder why no quotes?
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>Military clinicians are also attracted by the prospect of allowing critically 
injured troops to be near-frozen on the battlefield and =
preserved for later treatment.=20
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>The key to the technology is Hextend, a revolutionary plasma replacement fluid 
which is poured into the body through a vein in the upper thigh as=

 blood is drained and the anaesthetised body is cooled to 1C. As the clear fluid
 permeates the tissues, it prevents the deterioration caused =
by extreme lowering of body temperature.=20
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>The results from the baboon studies, carried out at Biotime, a California 
research company, were announced at the annual meeting of the =
American Association of Anti-Ageing Medicine.=20
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>Hal Sternberg, Biotime's head of research, said work on the mechanisms of 
animal hibernation had provided much of the basic information on =
suspended animation.=20
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>One type of North American frog can partially freeze its body while it shuts 
down during the winter months. Hamsters have been kept alive at =

1-2C with no heartbeat in Biotime laboratories for up to seven hours before 
being successfully rewarmed.=20
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>The long-term objective is to add freeze-protectant chemicals to the Hextend 
solution so human bodies can be stored at -196C, the temperature =
of liquid nitrogen. The principal barrier, however, is popular opinion.=20
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>"It is like the public attitude to early organ transplants," said Sternberg. 
"Although everyone will love us when we announce we have =

reversibly frozen a human being, at the moment this area is not considered 
socially acceptable.=20
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>"There is a limit to how far people think you should go to save a life: but we 
already have children being born from frozen embryos. If you are =
extending the beginning of life, why shouldn't you also extend it later on?"=20
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>Sternberg and his colleagues expect to use their new techniques to put 
themselves into long-term hibernation while they await the development of=

 life-extending techniques to cure and prevent cancer, heart failure and 
 Alzheimer's disease.=20
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>Doctors believe the technique can immediately be used in complex surgery, where
best results can be obtained by cooling the body to a =
level which would otherwise cause brain damage.=20
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>Clinical trials of Hextend led by Michael Mythen, a consultant anaesthetist who
worked on the project in America, are to begin at =
University College hospital, London, this year.=20
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>It will be used in complex orthopaedic, gynaecological and stomach operations 
where there is a danger of catastrophic blood loss and where =
better results can be obtained at low temperatures.=20
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>Kelvin Brockbank, a British-born scientist in South Carolina who has received 
funding from the American government for his research work in =

the allied field of preserving transplant organs, said deep-freezing of human 
tissue would be possible within a year. "There will be a whole =

range of applications for the technology," he said. "It will be up to people to 
decide how to use them."=20
Randy Smith
Cryonics: Gateway to the Future?
http://members.wbs.net/homepages/c/r/y/cryofan1.html
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