X-Message-Number: 9623 From: Eugene Leitl <> Date: Tue, 5 May 1998 18:23:20 +0400 (MSD) Subject: PROPOSAL: technical site on cryonics References: <> I, too, have been jolted by Saul Kent's essay. The slow growth paired with failure to attract fresh blood was particularly disheartening news to me. I have been interested in cryonics since as a teenager, before I knew that this beast had a name, and was actually practiced in the real world. I have learned the latter from Charles Platt's "The Silicon Man" novel (doubtlessly, Jim Halperin's oevre will have similiar impact), which contained an explicit pointer to Alcor. As treekiller information on the subject was scarce, I began with reading of sci.cryonics on Usenet, once I got an academic account, and later subscribed to CryoNet. I joined the German cryonics grassroots spearheaded by Klaus Reinhard (hello, Klaus), which, unfortunately, once again seems quiscent. My chiefest critique of the online community is the periodic occurance of intra-movement strife (which _can_ be constructive), predominance of make-believe attitude (akin to the three monkeys amulet) and lack of online technical information. I'd like to address the latter part. Cryobiology research sites are scarce, but sites featuring technical aspects of cryonics nonexistant. Thanks go to Doug Skrecky for his ongoing stream of information snippets -- however I think we need more of it, and on a different channel. I doubt the CryoNet majority regards them more than noise, anyway. We need a (moderated) technical mailing list and a website acting as a global open information depository (protocol/image database, etc.), and research coordination nexus. Joining the flood of electronically and cellulose-published documentation in a searchable archive, and be it abstracts solely, should already be valuable enough, submission of nonNDA parts of suspension reports should enhance the functionality further. My field is biomolecular modeling: denaturating aspects of water-ice phase transition and vitrification and molecular function of colligative and noncolligative cryoprotectants are my (so far, hobby) areas of interest -- along with part-time moderation this could be my token contribution. Another thing to look for should be development of quantitative transfection vectors, making mammal cells savvy of the mechanisms Darwin-developed by cryo-hardy organism ('tranfusion from within') -- do we have practicing DNA tinkerers here? Amateur submissions, if of adequate quality, should also be tolerated; apart from a rudimentary peer review mechanism we need a tutorial, teaching the basics of cryobiology, perhaps schematics how to build a Peltier microscope table, how to interpret microscopic images, how to maintain organ slices, etc. I am just brainstorming here, but you probably got the general idea. While we currently do not have enough mass, such a site could act as a nucleus for future development. Comments welcome. Regards, Eugene Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=9623