Why is freezing in liquid nitrogen better than other kinds of preservation, such as drying or embalming?
Straightforward chemical arguments lead to the conclusion that significant amounts of decomposition do not occur at liquid nitrogen temperatures. (See Hugh Hixon’s article “How Cold Is Cold Enough?” from *Cryonics* magazine, January, 1985, or fetch cryomsg 0015.) This isn’t true for either dried or embalmed tissue kept at room temperature. Also, Alcor and Trans Time have done experiments with dogs that demonstrate that part of the suspension process does not cause damage. Dogs have been anesthetized, perfused with a blood substitute, and cooled to slightly above 0 C for several hours. After rewarming and replacing the original blood, the dogs revived with no obvious brain damage. Experiments like this cannot be done with drying or embalming. Another option that may become possible in the future is vitrification.
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