6 ms·

Because 'lab grown self-organizing brain samples continue to grow after being frozen' is a little less appealing than the clickbait title

Retric 2y ago
Small mammals up to the size of hamsters can successfully be cryogenically frozen and revived significantly later. So while the same thing working on small samples of human tissue is completely expected it’s still useful research for organ transplants etc. All that cryogenic preservation that showed in science fiction is somewhat realistic even if we can’t do it yet and it’s probably going to require extensive surgery beforehand to enable rapid cooling.
- lisper 2y ago
  > Small mammals up to the size of hamsters can successfully be cryogenically frozen and revived significantly later. Reference?
  - sanxiyn 2y ago
    https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.1956.0054 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.1956.0054 (Yes, it's the same James Lovelock.)
    - lisper 2y ago
      Thanks. (Those poor hamsters!)
    - blincoln 2y ago
      That reads more like surviving extreme hypothermia than being frozen and thawed in the sense of cryogenic preservation. The greater the percentage of water in their body that was frozen, the less likely they were to survive, with some precipitous cliffs around 50% and 75%. Am I misreading it?
a-r-t 2y ago
From the article: "The researchers also applied their technique to three-millimeter cubes of brain tissue from a 9-month-old girl with epilepsy. The tissue maintained its pre-freezing structure and remained active in a laboratory culture for at least two weeks after being thawed."
- Waterluvian 2y ago
  > and remained active in a laboratory culture for at least two weeks after being thawed I’m sure I don’t fully understand the details but this kind of thing both excites and horrifies me when I ponder how much brain might be necessary to sustain the experience of consciousness.
  - lallysingh 2y ago
    Meh. If we want immorality we'll probably end up converting a brain scan to an LLM. Medically this could be great for preventing brain damage.
    - Waterluvian 2y ago
      At this point it feels like we’d required the resources of an entire planet to run a single full-fidelity virtual brain. Which leads to interesting science fiction premises.
      - hateful 2y ago
        Or one entire actual brain - if it can be done once by natural selection, it can be done more efficiently again by a designer. Time exists because the universe doesn't do calculations - the only way to see the outcome is to do the thing. See: The Three Body Problem
        hateful 2y ago
        See: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40508705 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40508705
dyauspitr 2y ago
I thought brain cells didn’t reproduce.
musicale 2y ago
> a little less appealing than the clickbait title I read that as "appalling" and ... it's kind of both.

Retric 2y ago

Small mammals up to the size of hamsters can successfully be cryogenically frozen and revived significantly later. So while the same thing working on small samples of human tissue is completely expected it’s still useful research for organ transplants etc. All that cryogenic preservation that showed in science fiction is somewhat realistic even if we can’t do it yet and it’s probably going to require extensive surgery beforehand to enable rapid cooling.

lisper 2y ago
> Small mammals up to the size of hamsters can successfully be cryogenically frozen and revived significantly later. Reference?
- sanxiyn 2y ago
  https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.1956.0054 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.1956.0054 (Yes, it's the same James Lovelock.)
  - lisper 2y ago
    Thanks. (Those poor hamsters!)
  - blincoln 2y ago
    That reads more like surviving extreme hypothermia than being frozen and thawed in the sense of cryogenic preservation. The greater the percentage of water in their body that was frozen, the less likely they were to survive, with some precipitous cliffs around 50% and 75%. Am I misreading it?

a-r-t 2y ago

From the article: "The researchers also applied their technique to three-millimeter cubes of brain tissue from a 9-month-old girl with epilepsy. The tissue maintained its pre-freezing structure and remained active in a laboratory culture for at least two weeks after being thawed."

Waterluvian 2y ago
> and remained active in a laboratory culture for at least two weeks after being thawed I’m sure I don’t fully understand the details but this kind of thing both excites and horrifies me when I ponder how much brain might be necessary to sustain the experience of consciousness.
- lallysingh 2y ago
  Meh. If we want immorality we'll probably end up converting a brain scan to an LLM. Medically this could be great for preventing brain damage.
  - Waterluvian 2y ago
    At this point it feels like we’d required the resources of an entire planet to run a single full-fidelity virtual brain. Which leads to interesting science fiction premises.
    - hateful 2y ago
      Or one entire actual brain - if it can be done once by natural selection, it can be done more efficiently again by a designer. Time exists because the universe doesn't do calculations - the only way to see the outcome is to do the thing. See: The Three Body Problem
      - hateful 2y ago
        See: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40508705 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40508705

dyauspitr 2y ago

I thought brain cells didn’t reproduce.

musicale 2y ago

> a little less appealing than the clickbait title I read that as "appalling" and ... it's kind of both.