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Cryopreservation
Cryopreservation or cryoconservation is a process where biological material - cells, tissues, or organs - are frozen to preserve the material for an extended period of time. At low temperatures (typically or using liquid nitrogen) any cell metabolism which might cause damage to the biological material in question is effectively stopped. Cryopreservation is an effective way to transport biological samples over long distances, store samples for prolonged periods of time, and create a bank of samples for users. Molecules, referred to as cryoprotective agents (CPAs), are added to reduce the osmotic shock and physical stresses cells undergo in the freezing process. Some cryoprotective agents used in research are inspired by plants and animals in nature that have unique cold tolerance to survive harsh winters, including: trees, wood frogs, and tardigrades. The first human corpse to be frozen with the hope of future resurrection was James Bedford's, a few hours after his c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cryopreservation USDA Gene Bank
Cryopreservation or cryoconservation is a process where biological material - cell (biology), cells, Biological tissue, tissues, or Organ (anatomy), organs - are frozen to preserve the material for an extended period of time. At low temperatures (typically or using liquid nitrogen) any cell metabolism which might cause damage to the biological material in question is effectively stopped. Cryopreservation is an effective way to transport biological samples over long distances, store samples for prolonged periods of time, and create a bank of samples for users. Molecules, referred to as Cryoprotectant, cryoprotective agents (CPAs), are added to reduce the osmotic shock and physical stresses cells undergo in the freezing process. Some cryoprotective agents used in research are inspired by plants and animals in nature that have unique cold tolerance to survive harsh winters, including: trees, wood frogs, and Tardigrade, tardigrades. The first human corpse to be frozen with the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cryonics
Cryonics (from ''kryos'', meaning "cold") is the low-temperature freezing (usually at ) and storage of human remains in the hope that resurrection may be possible in the future. Cryonics is regarded with skepticism by the mainstream scientific community. It is generally viewed as a pseudoscience, and its practice has been characterized as quackery. Cryonics procedures can begin only after the "patients" are clinically and legally dead. Procedures may begin within minutes of death, and use cryoprotectants to try to prevent ice formation during cryopreservation. It is not possible to reanimate a corpse that has undergone vitrification, as this damages the brain, including its neural circuits. The first corpse to be frozen was that of James Bedford, in 1967. As of 2014, remains from about 250 bodies had been cryopreserved in the United States, and 1,500 people had made arrangements for cryopreservation of theirs. Even if the resurrection promised by cryonics were pos ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Bedford
James Hiram Bedford (April 20, 1893 – January 12, 1967) was an American psychology professor at the University of California who wrote several books on occupational counseling. He is the first person whose body was cryopreserved after legal death, and remains preserved at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation. Cryonic preservation In June 1965, Ev Cooper's Life Extension Society (LES) offered the opportunity to preserve one person free of charge, stating that "the Life Extension Society now has primitive facilities for emergency short term freezing and storing our friend the large homeotherm (man). LES offers to freeze free of charge the first person desirous and in need of cryogenic suspension." Bedford did not take this opportunity, however, but later used his own funds. Bedford suffered from kidney cancer that had later metastasized into his lungs, a condition that was untreatable at the time. Bedford died in 1967 at 73 years old. Bedford left $100,000 to cryonics res ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Lovelock
James Ephraim Lovelock (26 July 1919 – 26 July 2022) was an English independent scientist, environmentalist and futurist. He is best known for proposing the Gaia hypothesis, which postulates that the Earth functions as a self-regulating system. With a PhD in the chemistry of disinfection, Lovelock began his career performing cryopreservation experiments on rodents, including successfully thawing and reviving frozen specimens. His methods were influential in the theories of cryonics (the cryopreservation of humans). He invented the electron capture detector and, using it, became the first to detect the widespread presence of chlorofluorocarbons in the atmosphere. While designing scientific instruments for NASA, he developed the Gaia hypothesis. In the 2000s, he proposed a method of climate engineering to restore carbon dioxide–consuming algae. He was an outspoken member of Environmentalists for Nuclear Energy, asserting that fossil fuel interests have been behind opposit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cryoprotectant
A cryoprotectant is a substance used to protect biological tissue from freezing damage (i.e. that due to ice formation). Arctic and Antarctic insects, fish and amphibians create cryoprotectants ( antifreeze compounds and antifreeze proteins) in their bodies to minimize freezing damage during cold winter periods. Cryoprotectants are also used to preserve living materials in the study of biology and to preserve food products. For years, glycerol has been used in cryobiology as a cryoprotectant for blood cells and bull sperm, allowing storage in liquid nitrogen at temperatures around −196 °C. However, glycerol cannot be used to protect whole organs from damage. Instead, many biotechnology companies are researching the development of other cryoprotectants more suitable for such uses. A successful discovery may eventually make possible the bulk cryogenic storage (or "banking") of transplantable human and xenobiotic organs. A substantial step in that direction has already occu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Liquid Nitrogen
Liquid nitrogen (LN2) is nitrogen in a liquid state at cryogenics, low temperature. Liquid nitrogen has a boiling point of about . It is produced industrially by fractional distillation of liquid air. It is a colorless, mobile liquid whose viscosity is about one-tenth that of acetone (i.e. roughly one-thirtieth that of water at room temperature). Liquid nitrogen is widely used as a coolant. Physical properties The diatomic character of the N2 molecule is retained after liquefaction. The weak van der Waals interaction between the N2 molecules results in little interatomic attraction. This is the cause of nitrogen's unusually low boiling point. The temperature of liquid nitrogen can readily be reduced to its freezing point by placing it in a vacuum chamber pumped by a vacuum pump. Liquid nitrogen's efficiency as a coolant is limited by the fact that it boils immediately on contact with a warmer object, enveloping the object in an insulating layer of nitrogen gas bubbles. Thi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Freezing
Freezing is a phase transition in which a liquid turns into a solid when its temperature is lowered below its freezing point. For most substances, the melting and freezing points are the same temperature; however, certain substances possess differing solid-liquid transition temperatures. For example, agar displays a Hysteresis#Liquid–solid-phase transitions, hysteresis in its melting point and freezing point. It melts at and solidifies from . Crystallization Most liquids freeze by crystallization, formation of crystal, crystalline solid from the uniform liquid. This is a first-order thermodynamic phase transition, which means that as long as solid and liquid coexist, the temperature of the whole system remains very nearly equal to the melting point due to the slow removal of heat when in contact with air, which is a poor heat conductor. Because of the latent heat of fusion, the freezing is greatly slowed and the temperature will not drop anymore once the freezing starts but ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hyla Crucifer
The spring peeper (''Pseudacris crucifer'') is a small chorus frog widespread throughout the eastern United States and Canada. It prefers permanent ponds due to its advantage in avoiding predation; however, it is very adaptable with respect to the habitat it can live in. In northern regions, the frog is able to endure below freezing temperatures due to the capacity of its liver to exude and flush the bloodstream with a glucose cryoprotectant which acts both as an anti-freeze in its blood, and allows organs like the heart to enter into a state of protected dormancy. The peeper earned its name from its chirping call, which marks the beginning of spring. ''Crucifer'' is derived from the Latin root meaning "cross-bearing", a reference to the cross-like pattern on the spring peeper's dorsal side. These chirping calls are significant for communication in mating as females choose their mates based on the frequency and volume associated with them. Satellite males who do not make any cal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Podarcis Muralis
The common wall lizard (''Podarcis muralis'') is a species of lizard with a large distribution in Europe and well-established introduced populations in North America, where it is also called the European wall lizard. It can grow to about in total length. The animal has shown variation in the places it has been introduced to. Fossils have been found in a cave in Greece dating to the early part of the Holocene. Description The common wall lizard is a small, thin lizard whose small scales are highly variable in colour and pattern. Its coloration is generally brownish or greyish, and may occasionally be tinged with green. In some individuals, the row of spots along their backs may form a line, while others may have a reticulated pattern with dark spots on the side and scattered white spots that can be blue in the shoulder region. The tail is brown, grey or rust in colour, and may also have light bars on the sides. The belly region has six rows of larger rectangular scales that are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chelydra Serpentina
The common snapping turtle (''Chelydra serpentina'') is a species of large freshwater turtle in the Family (biology), family Chelydridae. Its natural range extends from southeastern Canada, southwest to the edge of the Rocky Mountains, as far east as Nova Scotia and Florida. The present-day ''Chelydra serpentina'' population in the Middle Rio Grande suggests that the common snapping turtle has been present in this drainage since at least the seventeenth century and is likely native. The three species of ''Chelydra'' and the larger alligator snapping turtles (genus ''Macrochelys'') are the only extant Chelydridae, chelydrids, a family now restricted to the Americas. The common snapping turtle, as its name implies, is the most widespread. The common snapping turtle is noted for its combative disposition when out of the water with its powerful beak-like jaws, and highly mobile head and neck (hence the Specific name (zoology), specific epithet ''serpentina'', meaning "snake-like"). In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
