[ExI] Help with freezing phenomenon

[Keith Henson]

On Sat, Jan 29, 2011 at 5:00 AM,  "spike" <spike66 at att.net> wrote:

> ... On Behalf Of Keith Henson

>>...Spike, the point of all current procedures is to vitrify without any
> freezing at all, i.e., NO expansion...
>
> There is that, but I myself have not been convinced that vitrification is
> the way.  Perhaps if I studied it more, it would work for me.

Actually, the damage from freezing is dehydration of the cells.  Ice
forms outside the cells, pulling water out and the salt concentration
reaches damaging levels before the concentrated salt solution freezes.

This is all fairly well understood because because human embryos are
routinely in cryoprotective solutions, cooled to LN2 temperature and
later revived for implantation.  Tens of thousands of examples walk
the streets.
>
> Wasn't it you who commented about creating room below the brain cavity to
> allow a bit of expansion?

No.
>
> In keeping with my earlier notion of cryonics as a marketing task, it would
> be a Good Thing if you could tell your clients you know how to keep them
> from cracking.

We don't.  We have a choice of being honest and saying what we are
reasonably sure about, and what we don't know how to do, and lying.
If this conflicts with marketing, too bad.

I don't know if cracking can be solved or not.  It's partly an
engineering problem and partly an economic problem.

I can go into details if enough people are interested.

Keith