I've done some searching and there doesn't seem to be any info on updates as most of this is going on in Tokyo and there is a huge disconnect between the Japanese internet and the American internet. A whole other world we don't typically see due to the language barrier.
I did find this article however, which I had to translate:
http://translate.goo...&lang=no&id=650
-CB-
This subject has been discussed on this forum before, although
I am not going to make an effort to find the thread. I have
written a bit on this subject on my website, see the last
paragraph of:
http://www.benbest.c...tml#spaceflightOhwada published a paper in CRYOBIOLOGY this year:
http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/20478291and had a US patent (name N Owada) issued August 13, 2009.
The 2009 patent makes for very weird reading.
The CAS apparatus can on the
one hand remove oxygen and use nitrogen
gas -- to prevent oxidation damage -- and
on the other hand apply an electric field
to generate superoxide anion to produce
hydroxyl radicals to destroy bacteria. Wind
velocity in the cooler up to 5 m/sec can
hasten cooling. A sound wave generator
reportedly improves heat transmission
by stirring up the boundary layer of air
around the object-to-be-frozen. The benefit
of the magnetic field is the it "causes the
clusters of the free water to become small,
and thereby facilitates hydration of the
clusters with the substrates of the food
product to form hydration structures." [0048]
Yet in [0050] it says "since the magnetic
field fluctuate, the magnetic flux is changed
and electromagnetic induction occurs within
an object-to-be-frozen." This is so confused
-- [0047] refers to a unidirectional magnetic
field inducing direct magnetic moments.
It does seem like Owada might be on to
something, but it does not seem like he
knows what it is or can explain what it is,
even though he can show results. The
explanations are a mess. I would like to
see a systematic examination of oscillating
magnetic and electric fields and perhaps
even static magnetic fields under better
controlled conditions. I am still waiting...
-- Ben Best