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Cryonics Under Fire: Meeting the Challenges of Hostile Scientists Then and Now Page 8 January-February 2016 • Volume 37:1 Cryonics Under Fire: Meeting the Challenges of Hostile Scientists Then and Now Page 8 The Science Surrounding Cryonics Page 28 The Importance of Local Standby Support and Emergency Response ISSN 1054-4305 Technologies Page 32 $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? ü Keep Alcor up-to-date about personal and medical changes. ü Update your Alcor paperwork to reflect your current wishes. ü Execute a cryonics-friendly Living Will and Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care. ü Wear your bracelet and talk to your friends and family about your desire to be cryopreserved. ü Ask your relatives to sign Affidavits stating that they will not interfere with your cryopreservation. ü Attend local cryonics meetings or start a local group yourself. ü Contribute to Alcor’s operations and research. Contact Alcor (1-877-462-5267) and let us know how we can assist you. Visit the ALCOR FORUMS www.alcor.org/forums/ Discuss Alcor and cryonics topics with other members and Alcor officials. • The Alcor Foundation • Financial • Cell Repair Technologies • Rejuvenation • Cryobiology • Stabilization • Events and Meetings Other features include pseudonyms (pending verification of membership status) and a private forum. Visit the ALCOR BLOG www.alcor.org/blog/ Your source for news about: • Cryonics technology • Speaking events and meetings • Cryopreservation cases • Employment opportunities • Television programs about cryonics Alcor is on Facebook Connect with Alcor members and supporters on our official Facebook page: www.facebook.com/alcor.life.extension.foundation Become a fan and encourage interested friends, family members, and colleagues to support us too. COVER STORY: PAGE 8 CONTENTS lume 37:1 y 2016 • Vo ruar ry-Feb Janua Cryonics Under Fire: Meeting the 5 QUOD INCEPIMUS Challenges of Hostile Scientists CONFICIEMUS Then and Now Cryonics Without Cerebral Since it started in the 1960s, cryonics Dehydration? yonics Cr has had its share of critics, some of Perfusion of a healthy brain der Fire: Un whom had scientific credentials. with high concentrations of Meeting the nges Here we take a look at this scientific cryoprotectant produces severe Challe dehydration in humans. While of Hostile n hostility as it has manifested through ntists The this brain shrinking may not erase Scie w and No the years, including even some identity-critical information, we do Page 8 sentiments that it shouldn’t work, know that it compromises viability due to an imagined threat to society. and produces ultrastructural yonics nding Cr rrou We will see ISSNthat, 1054-4305 while there isn’t alterations. An important research nce Su by The Scie and e Local Stponsmuch open affirmation, today, of this priority in the next couple of Page 28 of cy Res rtance rgen $9.95 The Impo and Eme extreme position, when it comes to years is to further understand this pport Su ologies Techn phenomenon and design protocols Page 32 whether it will work, much the same criticism is being leveled now as half a to prevent it. century ago. As expected, cryonicists 31 Impressions from a Cryonics continue to feel their practice is Training in the Netherlands legitimate; arguments favoring its On the cover: In Autumn 2015, Cryonics UK a) Vitrified kidney vs frozen kidney continuation will be interspersed. took its standby equipment and b) A roundworm hatches larvae (One source for the latter is “The ambulance on the road for a after being cryopreserved Science Surrounding Cryonics,” also cryonics training in Utrecht, the reprinted in this issue—see below.) Netherlands. This successful meeting was attended by cryonicists 28 The Science Surrounding Cryonics from the Netherlands, the UK, On September 15, 2015 the MIT Technology Review published an Germany, and Switzerland and is a online article named “The False Science of Cryonics” that revealed a further step toward a coordinated poor understanding of the state of cryobiology and conflated cryonics European cryonics network. with connectomics and mind uploading. David W. Crippen, Robert J. Shmookler Reis, Ramon Risco, and Natasha Vita-More set the record 36 Membership Statistics straight with a fact-based response. How many members, associate members, and patients does Alcor have and where do they live? 32 The Importance of Local Standby Support and Emergency Response Technologies 38 Resuscitation Update As much as Alcor endeavours to employ a standby team to the bedside Mike Perry surveys the news in a timely manner, this is not always possible, especially in cases of and research to report on new sudden death or remote locations outside of the US. Carrie Wong offers developments that bring us closer an overview of basic local standby needs and current technologies to the resuscitation of cryonics and smartphone apps that can alert others in case of serious events or patients. sudden death. www.alcor.org Cryonics / January-February 2016 3 2016 Annual Giving Program lcor provides a wide array of services for you the member, and the general Editorial Board public. We inform and educate, we protect and preserve, and we strive to Saul Kent Aremain at the forefront of cryonics technology. Ralph C. Merkle, Ph.D. Since its founding, Alcor has relied on member support to maintain its mission R. Michael Perry, Ph.D. and attract new members. Your support, regardless of size, can provide a better future for all cryonicists. Please act now. Editor Aschwin de Wolf SUGGESTED GIVING LEVELS Contributing Writers $20 FRIEND David W. Crippen Aschwin de Wolf $60 JUNIOR SUPPOrter Gregory Jordan Torsten Nahm $120 Sustaining SUPPOrter R. Michael Perry, Ph.D. $500 AdvOcate SUPPOrter Robert J. Shmookler Reis Ramon Risco $1,000 LEADING SUPPOrter Natasha Vita-More Carrie Wong $2,500 VISIOnary SUPPOrter Copyright 2016 $5,000 Silver SUPPOrter by Alcor Life Extension Foundation All rights reserved. $10,000 GOLD SUPPOrter Reproduction, in whole or part, without permission is prohibited. $25,000 Titanium SUPPOrter Cryonics magazine is published bi-monthly. $50,000 Vanguard SUPPOrter To subscribe to the printed edition We encourage every member to donate. Even if you can only afford $5 right now, and/or change your address, please call you will make a significant contribution to Alcor’s future. 480.905.1906 x101or visit the magazine Donations may be made via the Donations button on the Alcor website or by website: contacting Alcor’s Finance Director, Bonnie Magee, at [email protected]. Your www.alcor.org/magazine donation may be made as a lump sum or divided into easy monthly payments. Please note: If you change your address less than a month before the magazine is mailed, it may be sent to your old address. Address correspondence to: Cryonics Magazine 7895 East Acoma Drive, Suite 110 The James Bedford Society Scottsdale, Arizona 85260 Phone: 480.905.1906 ifts have played a fundamental role in the cryonics Toll free: 877.462.5267 movement since its earliest days. Dr. James Bedford, a Fax: 480.922.9027 Gman whose extraordinary vision led him to become the first person to be cryopreserved, and the first to make a bequest to Letters to the Editor welcome: a cryonics organization, exemplified the determination of the early [email protected] pioneers of cryonics. We invite you to follow in his footsteps, and join the James Bedford Society. Advertising inquiries: 480.905.1906 x113 The James Bedford Society recognizes those who make a [email protected] bequest of any size to the Alcor Life Extension ISSN: 1054-4305 Foundation. If you have already provided a gift for Alcor in your estate, please send a copy of your relevant documents Visit us on the web at www.alcor.org to Alcor’s Finance Director, Bonnie Magee. If you’d like to learn more about setting up a bequest, send an email Alcor News Blog to [email protected] or call 480-905-1906 x114 to discuss your gift. http://www.alcor.org/blog/ 4 Cryonics / January-February 2016 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. Cryonics WITHOUT CEREBRAL DEHYDration? By Aschwin de Wolf ne of the interesting things about minimization or mitigation of ischemia). with M22 and other cryoprotectants show technological progress in cryonics Maybe because of this there has been ultrastructural alterations that are primarily Ois that awareness of technological relatively little interest in eliminating CPA- presumed to be due to CPA-induced problems, and the desire to solve them, is induced cerebral dehydration. Another dehydration. The significance of this issue often dependent on other problems being reason is that dehydration actually assists in was further reinforced in 2015 when a solved first. For example, cryoprotectant removing water from the brain to facilitate researcher from 21st Century Medicine toxicity became a more serious concern vitrification, perhaps even permitting showed electron micrographs of aldehyde- after it was possible to eliminate ice lower concentrations of cryoprotectant stabilized vitrified brains (vitrification after formation. After all, it is more important than are necessary for the vitrification of chemical fixation) that look considerably to eliminate severe (mechanical) damage other organs (preliminary evidence for this better than traditionally vitrified brains. In caused by ice crystals than to prevent exists). addition,
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