The soul is the
pattern of information that represents you, your thoughts, memories and
personality, your self. The laboratories of 21st Century Medicine in Fontana,
Calif. specialize in the cryopreservation of human organs and tissues using cryoprotectants
(antifreeze). Can brains be so preserved? Researchers are now developing
techniques that they hope will win the Brain Preservation Technology Prize.
In the past the
team explored the infusion of a rabbit brain through its carotid arteries with
a fixative agent called glutaraldehyde, which binds proteins together into a
solid gel. The brain was then removed and saturated in ethylene glycol, a
cryoprotective agent eliminating ice formation and allowing safe storage at
−130 degrees C as a glasslike, inert solid. At that temperature, chemical
reactions are so attenuated that it could be stored for millennia. If
successful, would it be proof of concept?
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