AndreInfante comments on We really need a "cryonics sales pitch" article. - Less Wrong

10 Post author: CronoDAS 03 August 2015 10:42PM

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Comment author: AndreInfante 05 August 2015 11:30:58PM 5 points [-]

Technically, it's the frogs and fish that routinely freeze through the winter. Of course, they evolved to pull off that stunt, so it's less impressive.

We've cryopreserved a whole mouse kidney before, and were able to thaw and use it as a mouse's sole kidney.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2781097/

We've also shown that nematode memory can survive cryopreservation:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3107805/Could-brains-stay-forever-young-Memories-survive-cryogenic-preservation-study-shows.html

The trouble is that larger chunks of tissue (like, say, a whole mouse or a human brain) are more prone to thermal cracking at very low temperatures. Until we solve that problem, nobody's coming back short of brain emulation or nanotechnology.

Comment author: CBHacking 08 August 2015 09:38:46AM 1 point [-]

Nitpick: The article talks about a rabbit kidney, not a mouse one

It also isn't entirely clear how cold the kidney got, or how long it was stored. It's evidence in favor of "at death" cryonics, but I'm not sure how strong of evidence it is. Also, it's possible to survive with substantially more kidney damage than you would even want to incur as brain damage.