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I imagine freezing is the less problematic side. You can probably dump it in liquid nitrogen (exaggeration, but you get my point). But you can't heat it fast (e
by elromulous 3y ago
I imagine freezing is the less problematic side. You can probably dump it in liquid nitrogen (exaggeration, but you get my point). But you can't heat it fast (enough) because the extreme heat would burn/vaporize the exterior while the inside is still cold.
- littlestymaar 3y agoI'm not sure about what's the problem with slow thawing though: AFAIK most tissues are pretty stable at fridge temperature for a few hours (from 4hours for a heart, up to 36hours for a kidney), but freezing is another matter: the slower you freeze things, the bigger the ice crystal grow, and IIRC you need to freeze things very quickly if you don't want damages from the ice crystal (you want to “vitrify” the water, instead of crystalizing it) and I don't think even liquide nitrogen is enough to freeze big organs quickly enough.
- AstralStorm 3y agoThere are some tricks with cryoprotectants and rarely used cryopreserving protein, but triggering that and not damaging cells is an active field of research.
- Vecr 3y agoI remember there being research where they successfully froze and then revived hamsters in the microwave (a scientific one to prevent uneven heating though), but it had no hope of working in people or even cats and dogs.
- greazy 3y agoThis is partly true https://www.thestar.com.my/news/true-or-not/2021/12/30/quickcheck-were-microwave-ovens-originally-developed-to-reanimate-frozen-hamsters https://www.thestar.com.my/news/true-or-not/2021/12/30/quick... Nowadays we have much better tech for rewarming frozen animals.
- ginko 3y agoAfaik the problem isn't the rewarming, but the quick and even freezing.
- elromulous 3y agoA scientific hamster? :P
- tschwimmer 3y agoah yes, the well known "hot pocket" problem - one of the most challenging in cryogenics