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A Non-Profit Organization July 2013 • Volume 34:7 Effects of Temperature on Preservation and Restoration of Cryonics Patients Page 13 What Do We Really Know About Fracturing? Page 5 ISSN 1054-4305 Reconstructive Connectomics Page 26 $9.95 Improve Your Odds of a Good Cryopreservation You have your cryonics funding and contracts in place but have you considered other steps you can take to prevent problems down the road? _ Keep Alcor up-to-date about personal and medical changes. _ Update your Alcor paperwork to reflect your current wishes. _ Execute a cryonics-friendly Living Will and Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care. _ Wear your bracelet and talk to your friends and family about your desire to be cryopreserved. _ Ask your relatives to sign Affidavits stating that they will not interfere with your cryopreservation. _ Attend local cryonics meetings or start a local group yourself. _ Contribute to Alcor’s operations and research. Contact Alcor (1-877-462-5267) and let us know how we can assist you. Take a look at the Your source for news about: ALCOR BLOG • Cryonics technology • Cryopreservation cases • Television programs about cryonics http://www.alcor.org/blog/ • Speaking events and meetings • Employment opportunities Alcor Life Connect with Alcor members and supporters on our Extension official Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/alcor.life.extension. Foundation foundation is on Become a fan and encourage interested friends, family members, and colleagues to support us too. A Non-Profit Organization rofit Organization A Non-P lume 34:7 2013 • Vo July CONTENTS of cts 6 CEO Update Effe ture ra tion Tempe va n atio on Preseror COVER STORY: PAGE 13 11 Underfunding Documents and Restnics Cryo of nts Effects of Temperature on Preservation 19 IN PERPETUITY Patie Page 13 and Restoration of Cryonics Patients We Shall Overcome: Legal At the recent Portland symposium about Approaches Towards Cryonics the Resuscitation and Reintegration of Patient Personhood cryonics patients,ISSN 1054-4305 CI director Ben Best Keegan Macintosh’s monthly y Know column about legal issues t Do We Reallring? presented on the effects of temperature Wha ractu $9.95 surrounding cryonics and life About F for the preservation and restoration Page 5 extension. nstructive of cryonics patients. Do repairs of Reco tomics Connec cryonics patients necessarily need to Page 26 23 Life, Our Asset Most Worthy be done at cryogenic temperatures? of Preservation Does intermediate temperature storage Daniel Witt’s recent presentation involve a risk of ongoing molecular at the May 2013 Asset mobility and associated damage? Will all Preservation group meeting is cryonics patients require repair of some a glowing recommendation of kind? Ben Best surveys the issues in this Suzanne Somers’ book Bombshell. technical article. 29 FOR THE RECORD Cryonics in New York: Human Freezings and Other Events, 1968-1969 Mike Perry’s indispensable 5 QUOD INCEPIMUS CONFICIEMUS column about important figures and events in life What Do We Really Know About Fracturing? extension, cryonics, and human Cryonics magazine editor Aschwin de Wolf’s column aims to enhancement. further the cause of human cryopreservation by debunking misconceptions and offering fresh perspectives. 35 Tech News We read the news to uncover the most promising and exciting 26 COOLER MINDS PREVAIL developments in science and technology. Reconstructive Connectomics A column by Chana de Wolf about neuroscience, cryonics, and 36 Membership Statistics life extension. www.alcor.org Cryonics / July 2013 3 A Non-Profit Organization The James Bedford Society ifts have played a fundamental role in the cryonics movement since its earliest days. Dr. James Bedford, a Editorial Board man whose extraordinary vision led him to become the Saul Kent G Ralph C. Merkle, Ph.D. first person to be cryopreserved, and the first to make a bequest to Brian Wowk, Ph.D. a cryonics organization, exemplified the determination of the early pioneers of cryonics. We invite you to follow in his footsteps, and Editor join the James Bedford Society. Aschwin de Wolf The James Bedford Society recognizes those who make a bequest of any size to the Alcor Life Extension Contributing Writers Foundation. If you have already provided a gift Ben Best for Alcor in your estate, please send a copy of your relevant documents Aschwin de Wolf to Alcor’s Finance Director, Bonnie Magee. Chana de Wolf If you’d like to learn more about setting up a bequest, send an email Keegan Macintosh to [email protected] or call 480-905-1906 x114 to discuss your gift. Max More, Ph.D. Mike Perry, Ph.D. Daniel Witt _____________________________ Copyright 2013 by Alcor Life Extension Foundation 2013 Annual Giving Program All rights reserved. Reproduction, in whole or part, without lcor provides a wide array of services for you the member, and the general permission is prohibited. Apublic. We inform and educate, we protect and preserve, and we strive to remain at the forefront of cryonics technology. Cryonics magazine is published monthly. Since its founding, Alcor has relied on member support to maintain its mission and attract new members. Your support, regardless of size, can provide a better To subscribe to the printed edition future for all cryonicists. Please act now. and/or change your address, please call 480.905.1906 x101or visit the magazine Suggested Giving Levels website: www.alcor.org/magazine $20 Friend Please note: If you change your address less than $60 Junior Supporter a month before the magazine is mailed, it may be sent to your old address. $120 Sustaining Supporter _____________________________ $500 Advocate Supporter Address correspondence to: Cryonics Magazine $1,000 Leading Supporter 7895 East Acoma Drive, Suite 110 Scottsdale, Arizona 85260 $2,500 Visionary Supporter Phone: 480.905.1906 Toll free: 877.462.5267 $5,000 Silver Supporter Fax: 480.922.9027 $10,000 Gold Supporter Letters to the Editor welcome: $25,000 Titanium Supporter [email protected] $50,000 Vanguard Supporter Advertising inquiries: 480.905.1906 x113 We encourage every member to donate. Even if you can only afford $5 right now, [email protected] you will make a significant contribution to Alcor’s future. ISSN: 1054-4305 Donations may be made via the Donations button on the Alcor website or by Visit us on the web at www.alcor.org contacting Alcor’s Finance Director, Bonnie Magee, at [email protected]. Your donation may be made as a lump sum or divided into easy monthly payments. Alcor News Blog http://www.alcor.org/blog/ 4 Cryonics / July 2013 www.alcor.org Quod incepimus conficiemus Photo: Cryo-Care Equipment Corporation at 2340 E. Washington St., Phoenix, AZ. Dr. Bedford’s “home” in 1970 or 1971. What DO WE Really KNOW ABOUT FRACTURING? By Aschwin de Wolf he goal of any credible cryonics made against intermediate temperature Alcor was at a temperature of -134°C for organization is to develop reversible storage is that Alcor routinely records M22.” Tcryopreservation to avoid passing fracturing events above the nominal Is this what we can expect for M22 for on problems with the cryopreservation glass transition temperature (Tg) of the all patients, or was this an “ideal” case, process itself to the next generation. While vitrification solution. But if we recognize too? Would -130°C be a safe storage there is a lot of recognition for the need to that such events can be (partly) attributed temperature? Does molecular-scale ice eliminate cryoprotectant toxicity, it is rather to ice formation due to ischemia-induced nucleation, as distinct from ice growth, obvious that it will not be possible to restore perfusion impairment it should be obvious constitute damage? integrated function in a fractured brain. that the recording of fracturing events above Despite all the articles and discussions The 2011 3rd Quarter issue of Cryonics Tg as such cannot be an argument against that have been devoted to the topic of magazine features a comprehensive update ITS. After all, we also do not argue against intermediate temperature storage, we do on intermediate temperature storage (ITS) the use of vitrification solutions because not seem to know much yet about fracturing by Dr. Brian Wowk. This article contains an ice formation will still occur in ischemic in (large) tissues that are well equilibrated important observation: patients that are perfused with vitrification with a vitrification solution and subjected Acoustic events consistent with fracturing were solutions. Because cryonics patients almost to a responsible cooling protocol. While found to be universal during cooling through the invariably suffer some degree of ischemia the crackphone data seem to support the cryogenic temperature range. They occurred whether prior to cryoprotective perfusion and use of the newer vitrification solutions for patients were frozen or vitrified. If cryoprotection is cryopreservation, our knowledge about reducing fracturing, controlled studies of good, they typically begin below the glass transition fracturing events in “ideal” human cases fracturing in vitrified tissues will need to be temperature (-123°C for M22 vitrification remains incomplete. conducted in a lab to really understand what solution). If cryoprotective perfusion does not go Hugh Hixon has developed a we can expect under ideal (non-ischemic) well, then fracturing events begin at temperatures “crackphone” to detect acoustic events that circumstances. as warm as -90°C. Higher fracturing temperatures are presumed to reflect fracturing events. are believed to occur when tissue freezes instead of A preliminary survey of the data reveals, Dr. Bedford’s “home” had been incorrectly attributed in the banner illustration to vitrifies because freezing increases the glass transition roughly, that the first temperature at which Aschwin’s regular column “Quod Incepimus temperature of solution between ice crystals. The cracking events are recorded is lower for the Conficiemus.” The building was right but temperature at which fractures begin is therefore newer generation of vitrification solutions the location and time were not.
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