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MIT Technology Review - Michael Hendricks opinion on Cryonics — LessWrong

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MIT Technology Review - Michael Hendricks opinion on Cryonics

16th Sep 2015

1 min read

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http://www.technologyreview.com/view/541311/the-false-science-of-cryonics/

Michael Hendricks is a neuroscientist and assistant professor of biology at McGill University.

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Everybody knows that atoms in the brain are constantly replaced.

I don't know if this is true.

http://askanaturalist.com/do-we-replace-our-cells-every-7-or-10-years/ http://rebrn.com/re/theseus-body-is-there-any-part-of-a-human-that-is-cellularly-or-873979/ http://www.theguardian.com/science/neurophilosophy/2012/feb/23/brain-new-cells-adult-neurogenesis All 3 links suggest the opposite.

Can You provide a source for this claim?

BR

V_V11y20

If I understand correctly, long lived and highly metabolically active cells like neurons still replace most, if not all, of their atoms during their lifetime, since metabolism and environmental radiation cause chemical damage which needs to be repaired in order to keep the cell functional.

2gjm11y

The claim isn't that the cells are constantly replaced, but that the atoms are; see e.g. this blog post as an example of the claim being made. [EDITED to add:] More specifically, an example where the claim is made and "new cells" and "new atoms" are explicitly distinguished.