Some species of animals are able to freeze/unfreeze. I think getting these mechanisms to work in (at least smaller) mammals would be a very good way to determine which freezing tech is important. It seems this thing should be approached from both ends.
ETA: this approach would make it an empirical project rather than intelligent guesswork. It’s also great PR—if people see that progress is being made towards human revival they’ll be more likely to take the leap.
I was under the impression that cryonic suspension operated differently / had different uses than deanimation. With deanimation, you just stop metabolism- with cryonics, you stop chemistry. It may be there are current cryonics patients who just needed to be put in an induced coma- but I get the sense that’s not the case.
Sadly, the wood frog that may be the most interesting model of this has never even been sequenced.
The frog’s freeze response is a complex set of responses, that include producing antifreeze (a sugar), protection from the toxicity of said antifreeze, protection from water loss, protection from oxygen deficiency, heartbeat regulation, and I forget what all else.
Some species of animals are able to freeze/unfreeze. I think getting these mechanisms to work in (at least smaller) mammals would be a very good way to determine which freezing tech is important. It seems this thing should be approached from both ends.
ETA: this approach would make it an empirical project rather than intelligent guesswork. It’s also great PR—if people see that progress is being made towards human revival they’ll be more likely to take the leap.
I was under the impression that cryonic suspension operated differently / had different uses than deanimation. With deanimation, you just stop metabolism- with cryonics, you stop chemistry. It may be there are current cryonics patients who just needed to be put in an induced coma- but I get the sense that’s not the case.
Both kinds of suspension are found in nature. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070220-frog-antifreeze.html
Intriguing! That looks like it might be useful- do you know if current cryoprotectants behave similarly?
Sadly, the wood frog that may be the most interesting model of this has never even been sequenced.
The frog’s freeze response is a complex set of responses, that include producing antifreeze (a sugar), protection from the toxicity of said antifreeze, protection from water loss, protection from oxygen deficiency, heartbeat regulation, and I forget what all else.