X-Message-Number: 9662
Date: Sat, 09 May 1998 03:40:15 -0400
From: Paul Wakfer <>
Subject: Building Bridges to Cryobiology

The near juxtaposition of several messages over several days (some of
which I happened to read almost together because I was off the net for a
few days while travelling cross country) led me to connect them together
into an idea that I am presenting here for consideration.

First,
>Message #9556
>Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 22:18:03 -0400
>From: Saul Kent <>
>Subject: The Failure Of The Cryonics Movement - Part I

Contained:
>In fact, in the early years of the movement, a number of
>scientists, including prominent cryobiologists, were quite
>friendly towards cryonics.  Reknowned biologist Jean
>Rostand, for example, wrote the preface to The Prospect 
>of Immortality.  Armand Karow, Jr., an established 
>cryobiologist at the Medical College of Georgia 
>wrote a series of columns for Cryonics Reports, the 
>newsletter of the Cryonics Society of New York.  A.P.
>Rinfret of the Linde Division of Union Carbide, which
>sold cryogenic equipment in the 60s, was friendly
>towards cryonics. Jerome K. Sherman, a cryo-
>biologist at the University of Arkansas sought
>financial help from the cryonics movement. In the 
>1960s,  I was able to put together a Scientific 
>Advisory Board to the Cryonics Societies, which 
>included a number of eminent mainstream 
>surgeons and cryobiologists.  

and:
>        It's no mystery why mainstream
>cryobiologists were friendly towards cryonics
>in the early days of the movement.  They
>thought cryonicists were a potential source of
>funds for their research.  They thought that any-
>one who wanted to beat death by being frozen
>would want the best possible chance of success.
>That even a small cryonics movement would 
>do everything within its power to help fund cryo-
>biological research.

and:
>        They soon found out they were wrong.
>Cryonicists *didn't* fund their research.  Cryonicists 
>didn't  try to raise funds for their research. Cryonicists 
>didn't even seem interested in their research.

and:
>In their eyes, the vast publicity that 
>cryonics was attracting was a direct slap in the face of 
>the only people (the scientists) on Earth who could ever 
>achieve the goal the cryonicists were supposed to be 
>seeking.  In their eyes, the constant focus of the media 
>on cryonics rather than cryobiology was a sad, cruel 
>joke played upon them  by a group (the cryonicists) 
>driven primarily by vanity and narcissism,  who
>preferred sensationalism to science.


Then:
>Message #9615
>Date: Mon, 4 May 1998 09:09:48 -0400
>From: Rafi Haftka <>
>Subject: Jolted into action

Contained:
>Now I would like to help building bridges to the
>cryobiology community.

and:
>I would like to spend the next year or two studying
>cryobiology, and would appreciate suggestions on the best textbooks and
>papers.

and:
>I hope to concentrate on problems that would be of interest to both
>cryobiologists and cryonicists.

and:
>I have been successful in obtaining money from the federal government to
>support research I like to do. I get about $300,000 per year, and have a
>cumulative total of about $5 Million in 1998 dollars. I hope that I will be
>able to get a total of $250,000 over a few years for cryobiomechanics,
>working together with cryobiologists.

then:
>Message #9618
>From: "Halperin, Jim" <>
>Subject: The So-called Failure of the Cryonics Movement
>Date: Mon, 4 May 1998 14:45:16 -0500
 
contained:
>I believe that we must experiment, try new ideas and
>approaches, and try to keep what works while discontinuing whatever
>doesn't work.

and:
>I will establish an escrow account with $600,000 in cash or securities
>from my charitable foundation.

[Of course, Jim was proposing this for tissue and brain cryopreservation
from organ donors, not for research or prize incentives.]

However, then:
>Message #9623
>From: Eugene Leitl <>
>Date: Tue,  5 May 1998 18:23:20 +0400 (MSD)
>Subject: PROPOSAL: technical site on cryonics
>References: <>

contained:
>I, too, have been jolted by Saul Kent's essay.

and:
>My chiefest critique of the online community is ... lack
>of online technical information.

>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,

and:
>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.

And finally, 
>Message #9624
>Date: Tue, 5 May 1998 10:21:16 -0700
>From: "Joseph J. Strout" <>
>Subject: Jim's proposal

contained:
>Let me propose two alternative uses of your half-million dollars:
[actually Jim was suggesting $600,000]
>
>1. Offer a scientific prize for the first successful cryopreservation of
>any major organ for, say, a week.  The concept here is similar to the "X
>Prize" in space, and in some ways similar to the Nobel prize in other
>disciplines (but with much more defined criteria).  Don't phrase it like a
>contest, but rather a recognition award for an important contribution to
>human society.  It may spur some young (or not-so-young) cryobiologists to
>try their hands at the problem.
>
>2. Set up a research fund, and offer grants to researchers working on organ
>cryopreservation.  Something in the neighborhood of $50K - $100K per year
>could fund some very interesting projects.  Accept proposals, get some
>scientific advisors to help you evaluate them, and award the grant(s) to
>the most promising proposal(s).  That might be from 21CM, or it might be
>some cryobiologist in Japan -- let it be decided by the merit of the
>proposals.

Currently, there are very few cryobiology web sites. The site of the
Society for Cryobiology is tucked away so most people cannot find it at:
http://sapphire.surgery.wisc.edu/cryobiology/ 

This site is little other that a big ad for the Society. Its most
interesting aspect is a bulletin board
http://sapphire.surgery.wisc.edu/wwwboard/cryobiology/ which apparently
is not monitored since I found the following messages on it (together
with only 17 others over a period of two years, only 4 of which were
ever replied to):


>Posted by l lancaster <> on July 05, 1997 at 17:07:39:
>
>I am looking for articles/information on the sci-fi head 
>freezing stuff. When might it be possible to thaw frozen 
>human heads & re-attach to a different body? What is the 
>history of this entire process? Is it true that Walt Disney
>has his entire body frozen somewhere? Any help out there?

[The title of this next one was: "cryonic suspension"]

>Posted by Nancy Power <> on January 05, 1998 at 20:35:40:
>
>The due date for my biology term paper is quickly approaching 
>and I have found limited information on the subject of cryonic
>suspension. I suspect that the proposition of one being able to
>freeze one's head and be thawed in future is a farce, but most of
>the information I have found is promotional literature from such
>life extension societies. Any information or direction as to where
>to find such information would be of tremendous help, and greatly 
>appreciated.
>thanks, 
>Nancy Power (high school student) 

>Posted by Zach Arney <> on February 17, 1998 at 17:44:45:
>
>I am presently doing a Biology essay on the ethics of Cryobiology.
>I would like some information pertaining to this topic. If
>anyone can suggest some books or web-pages, etc. to take a
>look at, I would be most thankfull. 

There is also the web site of the Society for Low Temperature Biology
(SLTB) at: http://www.bris.ac.uk/Depts/ObsGyn/sltb/

In addition, sci.cryonics is constantly getting requests from students
and others on all aspects of cryobiology and cryonics topics. In
addition, there is no cryobiology newsgroup.

It appears the crobiology community is far behind in is use of the
Internet. My idea is to grab this opportunity to push/pull them into the
"Internet Age" and at the same time to "blend" them and cryonics science
together.

Proposal:

1. That a major web site be established to service the needs of both the
cryobiological community and the *science* of cryonics. This site would
have as many resources of pertinent cryobiological information as we
could pull together. It would contain anything and everything that might
be of interest to young cryobiologists: equipment sources, job listings,
grant sources, etc. and to students doing projects in cryobiology
science. Because *this* web site is going to mention cryonics, at least
the *science* of cryonics, we will need to make it *very* useful and
attractive for cryobiologists.

2. The web site would also serve the needs of students and others
seeking information about science relating to cryobiology and cryonics
(but only the science of cryonics). 

3. I will provide a domain name, and a complete home for this web site
on the host account that I have for use with my other sites (currently,
morelife.org, prometheus-project.org, neurocryo.org) This account is
with a very fast and full service host provider, pair.com, with which I
have the highest service level account (I am not using hardly any of the
available features yet). Since this idea ties in very closely with what
INC was originally set up for by Thomas Donaldson (publishing cryonics
science), I would love to have the site as part of the neurocryo.org
domain. However, at the present time, I must still maintain no obvious
connection between INC and cryonics. Therefore, a new domain name is
probably in order.

4. Some one or more others with more web site savy and with more time
and interest to do so would be the web master and I would give them full
access to the account for this purpose. Are you interested Eugene or
others?

5. If Jim Halpern wishes to do so, a major attraction to this site and
its resources (and the way to initialy advertise it and attract
scientists to it) would be for it to offer both small grants for
cryobiological projects of certain types (described generally in such a
way that their results would be useful for cryonics without stating that
explicitly), and a prize for a major cryobiological breakthrough (again
implicitly described so as to be related to cryonics. My own thought is
that research grants of the order of $50-100K and a prize in the order
of $250K would be appropriate. 


I applogize for not having had more time to spend fleshing this out.
However, if I don't get it to you now, even in half baked form, then it
will not get done at all by me (and maybe forgotten) since I will be
extremely busy and then out of the country in Hawaii, Taiwan, and Japan
from May 13 to May 25.

If anyone is interested in this general idea, please take it and run
with it.

-- Paul --

 Voice/Fax: 416-968-6291 Page: 800-805-2870
The Institute for Neural Cryobiology - http://neurocryo.org
Perfected cryopreservation of Central Nervous System tissue
for neuroscience research and medical repair of brain diseases

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