This isn’t a new idea, but good to see it getting some press and testing (especially to compare against cryonics). I was initially enthusiastic about the concept as a cheap replacement for cryonics, but currently I favor cryopreservation or possibly a combination approach as the more likely winner.
The main problem (my layman’s understanding) is that you can’t fix lipids with the cheap relatively harmless kind of fixatives, like gluteraldehyde. Instead you need expensive, hazardous stuff like Osmium Tetroxide. Aschwin de Wolf has written about this in the 2009 issue of Cryonics Magazine.
Overall impression: This is a fascinating and highly valuable research project, but it is too soon to consider it a viable consumer option on par with vitrification yet. My current guess is the cooling + aldehyde partial fixation combo approach may be better for consumers than room temperature aldehyde + OsO4 + whatever else in the near future.
The one thing that makes me think chemopreservation has a lot of potential for rapid improvement is the point Robin makes about mainstream science already having a strong interest in it. Given that, it might improve much more rapidly despite being a technically much harder issue.
This isn’t a new idea, but good to see it getting some press and testing (especially to compare against cryonics). I was initially enthusiastic about the concept as a cheap replacement for cryonics, but currently I favor cryopreservation or possibly a combination approach as the more likely winner.
The main problem (my layman’s understanding) is that you can’t fix lipids with the cheap relatively harmless kind of fixatives, like gluteraldehyde. Instead you need expensive, hazardous stuff like Osmium Tetroxide. Aschwin de Wolf has written about this in the 2009 issue of Cryonics Magazine.
Overall impression: This is a fascinating and highly valuable research project, but it is too soon to consider it a viable consumer option on par with vitrification yet. My current guess is the cooling + aldehyde partial fixation combo approach may be better for consumers than room temperature aldehyde + OsO4 + whatever else in the near future.
The one thing that makes me think chemopreservation has a lot of potential for rapid improvement is the point Robin makes about mainstream science already having a strong interest in it. Given that, it might improve much more rapidly despite being a technically much harder issue.