Long Life: the Cryonics Institute newsletter
July 2003 -- Volume 2, Number 7 - Immortalist Highlights
Welcome to Long Life -- the electronic newsletter of the Cryonics Institute. We're here to update you with brief cutting-edge news, updates, links, and information about the latest scientific, medical, health, anti-ageing, and social developments relevant to CI's goal of saving, preserving, and extending human life. Long Life may also include news about Cryonics Institute events and member activities and opinion. We welcome your feedback, and encourage readers to forward issues to friends and interested parties.
There will now be separate issues for highlights from the latest issue of The Immortalist. The reason for this is that otherwise the file is too long for some readers, and also the publication dates of The Immortalist are not synchronous with the start of each month.
I would also urge readers to subscribe to the paper issue of The Immortalist (see http://www.cryonics.org/info.html ) as not everything is reproduced in this email version.
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>From the Immortalist:
Editor's Corner.Funky Winkerbean, A Look Back, Where Are They?
News & Views.. CI Research, Another Patient, New Cryostat
Venturists Report..They Want Us
Life Extension News..3D Body Scans, 3 Healthy Moves
Meet Yvan Bozzonetti..He has an investment for us
SA's Mobile Life Support System..A Close Up Look
Watchtower Pro Cryonics?..Jim Yount Reports
Book Review..The Philosophy of Robert Ettinger
EDITOR'S CORNER
Sometimes we forget to thank those who help get an issue out. John Besancon labels the bulk mail for each issue and brings it to the Post Office Andy Zawacki's photos are invaluable.
Joe Kowalsky submitted the Watchtower piece, and a Funky Winkerbean comic strip with a cryonics theme. We're not running the comic strip because the strip's syndicate wanted $60 to put it in one issue. Maybe they glossed over the fact that we're non-profit!
We try to get as much variety as we can in each issue, so we asked Jim Yount to reduce the Watchtower article to a more manageable size. This he did ably, the results are on page 15. John de Rivaz rose to the occasion by reviewing The Philosophy of Robert Ettinger, on page 16. So, thanks to all for a job well done!
When looking over the "A Look Back" pages, one is struck by all the unfamiliar names. What happened to these people? They joined cryonics when it was in it's infancy. Why didn't they stay in for the long haul? Did they get discouraged and drop out? Are they dead and buried? Or are they presently resting in a cryostat?
The names in this issue's "A Look Back" (CRYONICS REPORTS, February 1969,) published by The Cryonics Society of New York, are a good example. There's a list of "Cryonics Coordinators," from different parts of the country. Of the seven names, there's only one familiar one; Jack Nixon, currently a CI Board member. The staff of CRYONICS REPORTS didn't fare very well either. Of the four names, only the Editor, Saul Kent is a familiar one.
So, while the cryonics movement is charging ahead, one does hope, perhaps it was the exuberance of youth that faded, and they're still following cryonics/life extension developments.
News & Views
CI RESEARCH FORGES AHEAD
Dr. Yuri Pichugin's vitrification research continues gradually to yield new information and improved results. In recent work he has been able to keep brain slices at dry ice temperature for 48 hours, with viability as good as before cooling, namely, around 75% by the potassium/sodium criterion.
Also, two liters of the latest vitrification mixture was kept at dry ice temperature for 72 hours, with no ice crystallization.
So, according to all the results it is possible to keep a patient's body at dry ice temperature at least for 48 hours without ice crystallization and without reduction of tissue viability.
Additional information has also been obtained pertaining to the rate of absorption of the vitrification mixture.
Work with whole animals has yet to begin.
Further information about CI's research effort, and how you can help contribute to the effort, may be found on the CI web site at: www.cryonics.org/research.html.
Cryosummit Postponed
It was revealed earlier this month on Cryonet that Alcor President Dr. Jerry Lemler has been diagnosed with cancer. The entire cryonics community met the news with great regret, all of who have noted with respect and admiration Dr. Lemler's exemplary leadership of Alcor, and many substantive contributions to the cause of cryonics.
Dr. Lemler's presence at last year's Cryosummit was one of the high points of that historic meeting. But in light of the current situation, it was felt that the need to place the burden of additional travel and discussions on Dr. Lemler and his family and associates was not warranted, and so the plans for a second Cryosummit in June of this year have been -- for the moment -- postponed.
CI, its leadership, its staff, and its members, extend to Dr. Lemler and his family our full support and our very best wishes, and we sincerely hope that Dr. Lemler has a quick, full, and speedy recovery.
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"MOST SIGNIFICANT" DISCOVERY?
The cover of the June, 2003 issue of Life Extension, magazine of the Life Extension Foundation, heralds "The Most Significant Anti-Aging Discovery in Medical History!" Subtitle is, "Research Funded by Life Extension Yields Drug That May Radically Extend Life Span."
As most of our readers already know, the Life Extension Foundation is a Florida company headed by Saul Kent and William Faloon (the latter, if I remember correctly, a former mortician). It sells vitamins and nutritional supplements. Kent and Faloon are also prime movers in 21st Century Medicine, a California company apparently with its focus now on vitrifying organs for transplant, and Critical Care Research, with applications for clinical medicine.
The drug called "most significant" is metformin. Metformin HCl is (N,N-dimethylimidodicarbonimidic diamide hydrochloride). There is considerable information about it on the web, and Life Extension wrote it up at least as early as the edition of September 2001, including recommended dosages. (www.lef.org)
The company doing the research that was funded by Life Extension Foundation is BioMarker Pharmaceuticals (www.biomarkerinc.com). Mr. Kent is Chairman of the Board of Directors. Chairman of the Scientific Adisory Board is Professor Stephen R. Spindler, U Cal Riverside.
The article discusses, among other things, the benefits of CR (caloric restriction) and the possible or probable reasons. It also says rather emphatically that CR can dramatically increase life span even when begun late in life, and holds out the same hope for metformin and related drugs. "BioMarker's research suggests it is possible that the ability of CR to extend life span in old animals occurs because it may be able to reverse aging and rejuvenate the elderly, not just slow down the aging process. If this is so, then drugs that mimic the effects of CR should be able to achieve both these objectives."
BioMarkers did not discover metformin, but has developed ways to quickly assay expression of genes so as to get a quick fix on the probable effectiveness of drugs. In general terms, this is similar to the "diagnosis on a chip" or "analysis on a chip" concept that has made waves in recent years. Being able to screen drugs at a greatly accelerated rate is indeed an important advance.
Some will be a bit discomfited by the bad fit between the brassy title of the article (written by Mr. Kent) and the content, with liberal use of "suggests" and "possible" etc. Well, we can't have everything. Mr. Kent is a salesman, and his company is in a competitive business with big claims abounding, the word "miracle" being one of the most common in the advertising of the genre. I am thankful that he and Bill Faloon have made lots of money, and directed a lot of it into both anti-aging and cryonics-related research.
Warnings: According to the LEF, metformin and similar substances should not be used by people over 80 or those with a history of kidney or liver problems, alcoholism, or congestive heart failure.
Robert Ettinger
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NEW CRYOSTAT DELIVERED
In the last issue we reported that CI had ordered a new cryostat. In the 2nd week of May it was delivered. Andy Zawacki reports that in a preliminary inspection, it "looked good"
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ANOTHER PATIENT
Cryonics Institute has its 48th human patient, this one in cooperation with the American Cryonics Society. Publication of additional information at this time has not been authorized.
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CALL FOR PAPERS (Philosophy Anthology)
Death And Anti-Death: One Hundred Years After N. F. Fedorov (1829-1903)
(Edited and Copyrighted by Charles Tandy, Ph.D.)
(Published by Universal Publishers in association with Ria University Press)
Your paper does not necessarily have to mention N. F. Fedorov. For example, your contribution may be related to the metaphysics of death or the ethics of life extension or some other theme related to death and/or anti-death. All points of view are acceptable for this volume, but your paper must be a work of quality (professional) philosophy.
Timeline:
a. NOW: Immediately email to Dr. Tandy your intent to contribute to the volume: tandy@ria.edu
b. JULY 1, 2003: Email your abstract (or first draft of paper) before this date: tandy@ria.edu
c. AUGUST 1, 2003: Email your Death and Anti-Death contribution before this date: tandy@ria.edu
About The Editor
Dr. Charles Tandy received his Ph.D. in Philosophy of Education from the University of Missouri at Columbia (USA) before becoming a Visiting Scholar in the Philosophy Department at Stanford University (USA). Presently Dr. Tandy is Associate Professor of Humanities, and Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Philosophic Studies, at Fooyin University (Taiwan). For more information, see: http://www.doctortandy.com
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CRYOGENIC STORAGE SEMINAR
A free daylong seminar was scheduled for Saturday, June 14, on the 3rd floor of the Ontario Airport Marriott Hotel in Ontario, California. Lunch was to be provided without charge.
The seminar dealt with research that has been conducted on Timeship (http://Timeship.org), a visionary structure designed by architect Stephen Valentine for long-term cryopreservation and life extension research. The seminar was also to provide new information about intermediate temperature human storage systems by Valentine, Cryobiologist Physicist Brian Wowk and Cryogenic Engineer Michael Iarocci.
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MY EXPERIENCE WITH SARS IN TORONTO, CANADA
Ben Best wrote this before SARS re-emerged in Toronto, and, following this, is a message he filed after the SARS reemergence.
It has been nearly a month since Toronto has had a new locally acquired case of SARS. Last week the World Health Organization removed Toronto from the list of SARS-affected areas -- following a lift of the travel advisory against non-essential travel to Toronto near the end of April.
Being a somewhat paranoid life extensionist I began wearing a facemask on the subway in early April when SARS fears were high and continued the practice for over two weeks. I never saw another person wearing a mask on the subway, but there were noticeably fewer passengers.
I work as a computer programmer for a very paranoid institution -- one of Canada's largest banks. Early in April the bank moved employees supporting the same systems to different floors in case one floor had to be quarantined.
Employees visiting different floors were to wear facemasks. Antiseptic hand cleanser was placed in the washrooms and a sign encouraged employees to wash their hands both before and after using the toilet. I began holding paper towels when opening doors.
(I believe the greatest infection risk in the washroom is from touching facilities rather than genitals -- although infection can be transferred from hands to genitals during male urination if hands are not washed first. I think the prudish concept of genitals as extra-filthy causes scrupulous hand washing in many cases in which it is unnecessary.
It would make far more sense to wash hands after each handling of money.) I have a nose that is usually dripping and itchy. I am constantly blowing and cleaning-out my nose. I never go anywhere without a handkerchief. When I am sitting alone I find it hard to go for more than a few minutes without touching my eyes, nose, mouth or hair.
Having gone for 14 years without a sick day by keeping a healthy immune system I have not had to concern myself much with infection. But I am now much more conscious of my face-touching habits and am working to combat them. Shifting from my red handkerchiefs to tissue has made me more aware of the redness of my snot. I think my excessive interest in nose-cleaning has been irritating to my mucous membranes-- not good for resisting infection.
My high intake of Vitamin E and omega-3 fatty acids reduces my vulnerability to cardiovascular clots, but it also makes my gums and nasal membranes bleed more easily. Fortunately, I am seeing less red as a result of cleaning my nose less and being gentler when I do. (I refuse to use antihistamines because of neurological side effects.)
Life is returning to normal in Toronto. The subways are jammed again during rush hour. My coworker is returning to his desk next to mine next week because it is valuable for people supporting the same systems to be together.
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Having posted an "all clear" signal earlier on CryoNet I am obliged to post a retraction. The fact that there had not been a new case since April 20th and the fact that respiratory diseases tend to decline in the summer-- and the general belief that adequate controls had been taken -- caused many in Toronto (including me) to become complacent.
To keep things in perspective, however, the new cases have been within hospitals -- and stringent quarantines are being imposed. The death toll stands at 24 out of a population of 5 million in the greater
Toronto area. So I think there is still reasonable hope that SARS in Toronto can be brought under control even within hospitals reasonably quickly.
Ben Best
And more from Ben!
The World Science Fiction Convention is being held in Toronto August 28th to September 1st: http://www.torcon3.on.ca/
I intend to have cryonics room parties and we hope to have some cryonics-related panels. I encourage those who would be interested in attending to have no fear of our fair city.
It is inevitable that virulent viral epidemics-- whether of natural origin or engineered by terrorists -- will recur and spread quickly in this world of accelerating personal mobility.
I believe that Toronto will be one of the safest cities in North America as a result of our experience -- a physical infection has produced some powerful cultural antibodies. The Toronto airport has a thermal detector now. Consciousness of the risks of infection and how to minimize them are much higher than in other cities.
And another thing about Toronto:
We have Christine Gaspar.
Ben Best
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TRANSVISION 2003 USA
Most of our readers will not read this before the conference date, however it is noteworthy that from the conference description, Transhumanist discussion is apparently becoming much more mainstream.
June 27-29, 2003
Yale University, New Haven, CT USA
What will the body be like in 50 years? How will changes to our bodies change our lived experience? How will we adapt the body to our needs and to the environments in which we live? Will we have conquered sickness, aging and death for all or only for the lucky few?
Will people migrate to silicon, build superbodies, or both, or neither? This conference, the first Transvision conference to be sponsored by the World Transhumanist Association in North America, will explore the future of the body from the transhumanist perspective. TV03USA is co-sponsored by the Yale Interdisciplinary Bioethics Program's Working Group on Artificial Intelligence, Nanotechnology and Transhumanism.
Transhumanism advocates the individual's right to use technology to enhance the body. This conference will begin the discussion between the transhumanist movement and the communities with which transhumanists have rarely been in dialogue: professional bioethicists, anti-technology activists, disability and transgender activists, and critical social theorists of science and technology.
The Society for Venturism is an organization dedicated to the advancing of immortalist philosophy and ideals throughout the world by being actively engaged in doing real world things. We will include all cryonicists and cryonics groups within our membership. In fact, bringing all these different organizations and people together is one of our primary goals. David Pizer, our founder, is a former Vice President of ALCOR, and yet he made a point of including both Cryonics Institute (Robert Ettinger) and ALCOR (Dr. Lemler) people on our board of directors.
The Venturist website is: www.venturist.org (www.creeksidepreserve.com is the moneymaking seed which will be the prelude to Ventureville, I am the General Manager)
John Grigg
The Society for Venturism
11255 S.S.R. 69
Mayer, Arizona 86333
It is time for all people who wish to live in a better world, which readily accepts life extension research and cryonics to band together and work to make this a concrete reality. The Society for Venturism is raising up its banners to share with the world our exciting message; aiming for the achievement of physical immortality. Our initial plans are to help our members be interviewed in the mass media, develop a major new magazine, and to have the membership advantage of sharing our beliefs from the forum of an organization that does not profit when someone gets suspended.
We will do the first aim by engaging radio and TV talk shows and offer up Venturist members to be interviewed - long and often. We hope to flood the talk shows and news shows with interviews of reasonable Venturist members who are willing to persuade others to "take the venture to the future." If you remember, we chose the word "Venturist" because a "venture" is an adventure with some risk. That is what cryonics is about.
We will spread the cryonics message by building the Venturist Magazine into a publication that can be sold in news stands and will be attractive and informative. Starting with the July 1st issue the Venturist magazine will come out every month.
Our unique organization lets others do suspensions and storage, while we concentrate on getting our message out to the world. This is so there is no perceived financial gain for us as cryonics grows. The benefits of our work will go to others.
So far we have discussed building the membership, doing radio and TV talk shows, and building the magazine and trying to get it up to standards where it can be sold in news stands. After we have progressed in this direction we can implement other benefits to immortalists like: Personal trusts to take it ($) with you; a back-up rescue option in case the patient's primary storage company gets in trouble; meetings and seminars here at the Creekside Preserve.
And in time Ventureville, our cryonics community planned for development in Mayer, will become a reality as our numbers grow. This will not happen overnight, but in time we will have houses, apartments and a lodge center to be a beacon to cryonicists everywhere who want to gather together to work on Venturist goals and also to look after each other.
People who use reason to seek their own advantage and do so without harming others, and in fact help others in the process are the most noble and honorable. And that is what you will be doing with other fine people when you join the society for Venturism. Each time the Venturists help motivate another person to sign up for cryonics, the existing cryonics population is strengthened by adding more members and the new person is helped by having the personal protection of being signed up for cryonics. Therefore, every time you help someone else through cryonics you are also helping those who are already signed up and those who are already in suspension. Working to increase membership in the cryonics movement is truly a win-win situation.
By becoming a member you will be taking part in a great undertaking which will change for the better the world we live in. Come embark on the adventure!
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Membership and Subscribers' Query
By not only joining the Venturists but subscribing to the magazine you are showing your support to share the message of physical immortality as an attainable goal with the world.
Please enter my order for a half years' subscription to the magazine for the second half of 2003. Enclosed you will find my payment for July through December, 2003.
USA 6 Months $12.00____
Canada 6 Months $15.00____
Overseas 6 Months $18.00____
(Take me off List ____)
Send to:
Name ______________________________________________________________
Street Address________________________________________________________
City __________________ State __________ Zip _______ Country ____________
We are trying to update our membership and subscription lists. Please help us by filling out this questionnaire and returning it to us as soon as possible. All responses will be kept strictly confidential. Thank you.
1. Full Membership Venturists Full Members must have arrangements made arrangements for cryonic suspension in the event of clinical death.
Please count me as a full member ______ .
2. Associate Member Venturist Associate members are those who are sympathetic
to cryonics, but may not have completed suspension arrangements for themselves.
Please count me as a full member ______ .
3. Subscriber I make no declarations but would like to receive the magazine.
Please count me as a subscriber only ______ .
LIFE EXTENSION NEWS
3D Body Scans are the Future
The new imaging system combines two tests you've probably heard of, or had before: The high tech X-rays of computerized tomography (CT) and the scans of positron-emission tomography (PET.) CT scans detect tiny abnormalities by generating cross-section pictures of the body, like pieces of bread sliced from a loaf. PET measures concentrations of subatomic particles called positrons in living tissue to create images that highlight areas of increased metabolic activity. Individually, each procedure only catches some early tumors, so patients often must have both scans separately.
The combined technologies use a single new machine to produce state-of-the-art PET and CT scans simultaneously, then fuse them into a single 3D image using a built in computer. PET-CT scans hold great potential for detecting cancers of the breast, lung, colon and lymph nodes.
PET-CT scans could help doctors determine whether a particular tumor is malignant or benign; they could also greatly reduce the number of unnecessary biopsies. Another advantage is the ability to locate with great accuracy the abnormality in question. This aids in accurate staging and planning radiation or surgery.
A PET-CT scan usually takes about 30 minutes. Approximately 45 minutes beforehand, a person is injected with a fluid that contains a low dose radioactive compound, which completely washes out of the body a few hours later. Then the patient lies on a special bed that rolls into an opening in the machine. PET-CT is painless but some people may experience claustrophobia in this confined space.
By the end of 2001, there were around 40 of these machines in operation around the country. To find one, ask your doctor to refer you to a nuclear-medicine facility; call and ask if they use the new technology. One caveat: If you get a PET-CT scan, make sure a physician trained in both radiology and nuclear medicine reads it.
HEALTH
WIRED asked three prominent individuals if full-body scans were the last word in preventative medicine:
Dan Parker, CEO and owner, Vitascan TM
No, but full body scans will become indispensable to traditional exams. Conventional tests for heart disease-cholesterol levels, treadmills, are very poor indicators. And no one likes to endure the invasiveness of a colonoscopy. 85 percent of people currently go untested. The medical and insurance companies will soon realize that a test that costs $1000 dollars can prevent a heart attack that costs tens of thousands or cancer that can cost millions.
Suzanne Somers, patient, actress, and fitness product guru
My unbridled curiosity about what's going on inside my body drove me to get a scan. I am happy to report that everything was normal. It's reassuring to be able to look inside your body and check on plaque in the arteries, and on the health of vital organs. I suspect that in the future the scan will become such an integral part of being proactive about one's health, there will be a lot more machines, which, hopefully will bring down the cost for everyone.
Ralph P. Lieto, Chair, Radiation Protection Committee, American Association of Physicians in Medicine
There are patients who get the test not because they're displaying any symptoms or because they're in some high-risk group, but just because they have the cash. CT scans represent significant radiation exposure. The dose you get from a mammogram is about two tenths of a rad, for a CT scan it can be 10 or 20 times greater. But technology has shown that you can run the same tests with less of a dose, so we're leaving the door open.
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AVOIDING STROKES
While some risk factors are beyond your control-getting older, a family history of stroke, being born with a heart or blood vessel defect, the majority of strokes are preventable.
Check your cholesterol. Up to 25 percent of people age 35-55 have elevated cholesterol, a condition that increases the risk of clot induced strokes.
Keep tabs on your blood pressure. Hypertension is the number one treatable risk factor for stroke. It affects one in four adults, promotes clogging of the arteries, and puts abnormal pressure on blood vessel walls.
Feast on fruits and veggies. Population studies consistently show that people who consume three to five servings of fruits and vegetables a day significantly reduce their stroke risk.
Watch your weight. Being overweight increases the likelihood of developing high blood pressure, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes, all of which increase the risk of stroke.
Keep moving. Thirty minutes of physical activity-walking, jogging or biking three to five times a week has been shown to reduce stroke risk, in part because it stimulates the body to develop larger and more numerous blood vessels.
If you smoke, quit! Because of the adverse effects both nicotine and carbon monoxide have on the vessels, smoking doubles the risk of stroke. For smokers on the pill, stroke risk quadruples.
University of Michigan researchers have found that female stroke sufferers were 62 percent more likely to exhibit less "traditional" stroke signs than men, resulting in delayed treatment, and higher death rates. Adapted from More
Long Term Nursing Care Insurance
Long-term-care insurance is worthwhile for one group of people: those with assets of at least $300,000 over the equity in their home. Financial experts agree that generally, this insurance is a bad investment. It's expensive too, many policies have restrictions that limit coverage, and provide limited benefits.
Consider that two thirds of all men and one third of all women age 65 and older will never spend a day inside a nursing facility Most people who do, don't stay long. Only a minority, 25 percent of women and ten percent of men stay longer than a year. Adapted from FLORIDA TODAY Suggested Reading: Choose the Right Long Term Care, Home Care, Assisted Living and Nursing Homes. Fourth edition by Joseph L. Matthews
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Beyond Cholesterol
A blood test that measures inflammation inside blood vessel walls, C-reactive protein, is sweeping the country. Researchers have found that CRP levels may be better predictors of future risk for heart attacks or strokes, even when "bad" cholesterol-the type that clogs arteries, appears within a normal range.
CRP is a protein made by the liver that measures the presence and intensity of inflammation inside blood vessels. Doctors have been offering the test more of less routinely during the past year to heart patients where other factors such as obesity, or age, put them at high risk for a heart event.
But if a patient comes in with rheumatoid arthritis, a disease characterized by widespread inflammation, a CRP test won't tell anything. CRP tests are highly sensitive, picking up inflammation anywhere in the body, not just inside artery walls.
Having the flu, or just stubbing your toe can make CRP readings jump dramatically. But where there are no underlying reasons for an elevated CRP and the test shows abnormalities on at least two separate readings, the patient has an increased risk of heart problems. Adapted from FLORIDA TODAY
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Three Healthy Moves
Reduce the salt.
Curbing salt intake keeps hypertension at bay. A recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine reported that whatever a person's salt intake was, high, medium or low; cutting back lowered blood pressure levels.
Another benefit: It may strengthen your bones by preventing calcium loss. Adults should consume no more than 2400 mg. of salt daily. On average, most of us consume about twice that.
Stock up on C.
Vitamin C may keep a cold from dragging on. Take a 500 mg. supplement once or twice daily, depending on how much you get in your diet: orange juice 82. mg per 8 ounce glass; strawberries 86. mg per cup and brussels sprout 97 mg. per cup.
Another benefit: You'll be less likely to develop cataracts, a clouding of the eye lens, and the leading cause of vision loss in adults 55 and older.
Pop an aspirin.
Taking aspirin prevents artery clogging blood clots. Combined data from five clinical trials showed aspirin lowers the risk of heart attack and death from heart disease by 28 per cent, according to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.
Another benefit: A lowered risk of colon cancer. Researchers at Dartmouth Medical School studied a group of adults at high risk for colon cancer because of polyps. Those who took an 80 mg aspirin, (a baby aspirin) daily for three years, saw a nineteen percent decrease in their risk of developing colon cancer.
Talk to your doctor before starting a regimen. Adapted from FITNESS
Tea Fights Infection
A cup of tea, drank daily, could be a powerful infection fighter. Researchers report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science that they have found in tea a chemical that boosts the body's defense five-fold against disease.
They said the chemical primes immune system cells to attack bacteria, viruses and fungi. Doctors at Brigham and Woman's Hospital in Boston and Harvard Medical School announced they have isolated the chemical in the laboratory and then proved with a group of volunteers that it did protect against germs. The results gave clear proof that five cups of tea daily sharpened the body's defenses against disease. Penny Kris-Etherton,a nutrition specialist at Pennsylvania State University, said the results add to a growing body of evidence that tea is an effective disease fighter. In the study, researchers isolated a substance called L-theanine from ordinary black tea. The substance is also found in green and oolong tea. They said L-Theanine is broken down in the liver to ethylamine, a molecule that primes the response of an immune blood cell called the gamma delta T cell.
The T cells prompt the secretion of interferon, a key part of the body's defense against infection. They knew from previous mouse studies that boosting this part of the immune system could protect against infection.
To further test the findings, the researchers had 11 volunteers drink 5 cups a day of tea, and 10 others drink coffee. Before the test began, they drew blood samples from all 21 test subjects. After 4 weeks, they took more blood from the tea drinkers, and then exposed that blood to the bacteria called E-coli. The immune cells in those blood specimens secreted 5 times more interferon, than did blood cells from the same subjects before the weeks of tea drinking. Blood tests and bacteria challenges showed there was no change in the interferon levels of the coffee drinkers. Adapted from FLORIDA TODAY
MEET YVAN BOZZONETTI:
He's a Postal Worker, an amateur physicist, an entrepreneur, (he has an investment opportunity for us!) and, as any Cryonet subscriber knows, a prolific poster to that forum. Yvan is an Immortalist Society member, and is planning on joining the Cryonics Institute.
I was born October 17, 1951 near Grenoble, in the southeastern part of France. As a youth, I was in poor health, so my studies were rather chaotic. Using evening courses, I managed to get two years University (official) education. I work in Paris for the French postal service. I am single. The only advantage in my work is that I can incur some debts and buy some real estate properties. I rent them and when, next year the loans will be fully repaid I'll be able to live without work.
When in Grigny, near Paris, my main hobby is reading science papers, mostly from the ArXiv server. When I can get some free time, I go back to Romans in southeast France where I have a large dusty garage full of strange tools: The biggest mirror polishing machine in the amateur astronomy world, able to work with 2 m (80") mirrors. A "pizza oven" able to cook glass plates 1 m in diameter at the critical transition temperature near 674 degree C.
Problems: The oven needs 12KW of electricity and the garage owner allows me only 3 KW. I don't have the room to test a large mirror nor the money to buy the raw glass disk ($200,000 apiece). I have another polishing machine in the making for special materials (graphite) but I need a lathe to complete it. I have no room to put one here.
I plan on buying half an acre in an industrial area to move all that old dust to a larger building. Here I could build a large kiln to make my own 80" glass disks.
I could also use the pizza oven here to cast aluminum. I need 1,000 lbs pressure containers to test the high-pressure cryogenics hyperpolarized helium-3 technology.
I'm trying to interest a French lab working on He-3 Magnetic Resonance Imaging in the cryo version for high definition pictures (100nm). If all goes OK, a first brain scan at this resolution could be at hand 3 - 4 years from now.
At start, data processing may be a bottleneck. For the next system, using an intensity interferometer, I'll start with light in the astronomy domain. I have been in communication with the head of the optical laboratory at The Laval University in Quebec. The next step is to use a phonon based system and have a brain scanner working at small molecule resolution., it could work with either: phaser (giga Hertz phonons) or saser (tera Hertz phonons) systems.
I am interested in these technologies because they would both: allow uploading and assess damage to be corrected by some repair system. 3 or 4 brain scanners need to be built:
1/One using magnetic resonance imaging with hyperpolarized helium-3 under pressure and low temperature. This system is slow, cumbersome and has a limited resolution in the 100 nm range. It is the simplest and only way we can derive in a short time scale the works under way in different laboratories.
2/The use of phonons (sound quasi-particles) allows a better resolution, down to the nanometer scale. Drawbacks are: Slow system, low temperature, building back pictures with four-wave interferometry (intensity interferometry). The electronics and software parts can be tested on an astronomical instrument and so, the astronomical community can contribute to the development project. The phonon part must be built separately.
3/Using entanglement produced by a narrow space between mirrors, an interferometer scanner could be built using microwaves. It would be fast, work at room temperature... and produce enormous radiation damages. Interesting to recover broken DNA from fossils and coal for example.
4/A similar system, using X-rays with quantum non-demolition technology would solve the radiation problem, this technology is 30 years from now with a vigorous R&D program. Cost may be in the billions.
Well all of that has a cost, so I plan on buying an area near a railway station to build some underground park lots. They are in dire need here and can be sold $15,000 each. I hope to make 50 of them in the coming two years, maybe not alone, if someone is interested in that project. I'll build them from pre- fabricated concrete slabs made at the Romans site. (If you need money in the coming two years, there is room for more building work, the market is 500 - 700 lots, $800 to buy the land and $2,000 in building work/park lot. 400% return on 2.5 yrs).
As you see, I plan to cease to work...
How cryonics is seen in my environment: My mother's attitude is "why not", but she is very dubious about the possibility to recover. My uncle is quite against it and firmly for cremation. For my friends or work mates, this is at best a crazy idea.
I have some contact from time to time with Mr. J. Saby, whose mother is a patient at CI. I think the cryonics attitude in France could be improved if some authorities in the official research establishment could support it. That is one more reason to make some links with MRI researchers. Given that the current French government has slashed the research budget by 30% this year (something not seen in the past sixty years), they are in dire need to find exterior funds, if not, 90% of French labs will be closed 2 years from now. May be the car park project came just in time...
Moving? If the current projects take-off, may be in some years I'll need a small flat somewhere in the US or Canada.
Yvan Bozzonetti Azt28@aol.com
Azt28@aol.com
Suspended Animation's MLSS (Mobile Life Support System)
The MLSS was developed prior to its coming to exist at Suspended Animation (SA.) It was provided SA by the Life Extension Foundation of Fort Lauderdale, who is the primary financial investor in SA. SA has modified it extensively and added features. The cart consists of several elements, including:
1. Ice Bath
2. Respiratory Integrated Thumper
3. Cardio-pulmonary bypass system for patient washout/cooling or metabolic support
4. Self contained oxygen
5. Suction system
6. Oxygen and temperature sensors
7. Storage for medical supplies
8. Battery power supply and charger
The Ice bath uses an ice/water mixture to provide efficient cooling of the patient's skin that cannot be obtained through ice bags, due to their poor skin contact. The bath has a cutout to enable a Michigan Instruments Thumper to be positioned over the chest of the patient. A common bilge pump provides water circulation over the patient (currently being reworked). In the bottom of the bath are located copper pipes that are used to provide chill water for the bypass system described below.
The Michigan instruments push-pull Thumper provides two functions, circulation and respiration. The thumper provides five chest compressions and then sends a burst of O2 to the patient's intubation tube for respiration. An SA added airway control valve shuts off the airway during the heart compressions, improving Thumper efficiency significantly. The Thumper is pneumatically driven using O2 from an onboard tank or air from a portable compressor.
A major benefit of the thumper is circulation of cold blood from the skin to the brain and body core. Without this blood circulation, cooling via ice/water would be significantly less effective. The thumper also ensures that medications introduced into the patient are circulated throughout the body.
Located below the ice bath is the bypass circulation system. This system consists of a calibrated roller style cardio pump, tubing, bypass reservoir, Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenator (ECMO), heat exchanger, filters, and sensors. The system has three operating modes. In the first mode, the system pumps MHP washout fluid from an external reservoir through the ECMO (for oxygenation) and heat exchanger (cooling it to near freezing) and then through the filter/bubble trap into the patient via fem-fem bypass and finally into a waste collection bag. In this mode the unit provides body washout. In the second mode, after washout is complete, the circulation loop is closed back into the bypass reservoir so that washout fluid is passed trough the ECMO and heat exchanger into the patient and back again in a closed loop. This mode is used to cool the patient to just above the ice point. Alternatively, in a third mode, the bypass system can be used in traditional bypass mode, where blood is pumped through the ECMO for oxygenation and then back into the body for metabolic support. Cooling for the heat exchanger is provided by a SA added chill loop that pumps water from the secondary of the heat exchanger through copper tubes in the ice bath and back to the heat exchanger.
The bypass system can also be used to perfuse the body or head through the carotids in the single pass CI protocol.
Also below the ice bath is housed a complete vacuum suction system, oxygen bottles to drive the thumper and provide O2 for the ECMO, a pulse oximeter, and readouts for the multiple temperature probes in the patient and perfusion line.
The cart has dual 12 volt batteries to power the pumps and a battery charger. Storage for surgical and other supplies is also provided in the cart.
SA is in the process of further modifying the system:
1. Changing primary perfusion pump due to problems with the original unit.
2. Adding perfusion pressure and flow monitors.
3. Adding a specially designed bubble trap.
4. Adding a multi-function respiratory analyzer.
5. Adding a compressor for Thumper and ECMO support in the absence of O2.
6. Implementing a new water distribution system for patient cooling.
7. Evaluating using NITROX dive tanks rather than oxygen to support the Thumper and ECMO, due to the capacity and widespread availability of such tanks.
The MLSS is sufficiently portable to be used wherever SA can support patient transport using its ambulance or a truck dispatched from Boca Raton. However, this unit is not air transportable. SA is in the process of fabricating an air transportable unit that has most of the features of the MLSS, but is contained in boxes that can be air transported as luggage. This unit will be available in about 45 days.
We asked Dave Shumaker if they would ever consider selling these units, Dave replied "we would be very glad to fabricate these carts for sale and train persons in their use. Provision of such equipment to others has always been an element of our overall business plan."
Watchtower gives "Thumbs Up" to cryonics?
By Jim Yount
Joe Kowalsky recently called our attention to a long article in The Watchtower magazine (from 1999), written by and for the Jehovah Witnesses but without a by-line, entitled Is Everlasting Life Really Possible?. Most of the article focuses on continued life from a purely religious perspective, but attempts to show how the view of modern science supports the bible.
One of the 23 points (paragraphs) in the article discusses cryonics, then the Watch Tower writer concludes that we have this desire to live forever because the Creator intends to see that the desire is fulfilled. To quote from the article:
"10 Modern efforts to try to satisfy man's inherent desire for everlasting life are no less remarkable. A prominent example is the practice of freezing a human who succumbs to disease. This has been done in hopes of restoring life at some future time when a cure for the disease has been developed. A proponent of this practice, which is called cryonics, wrote: "If our optimism proves justified and it is learned how to cure or repair all damage-including the debilities of old age-then those who 'die' now will have an indefinitely extended life in the future.""
11 Why, you may ask, is this desire for everlasting life so embedded in our thinking? Is it because "[God] has put eternity into man's mind"? (Ecclesiastes 3:11, Revised Standard Version) This is a matter for serious reflection! Just think: Why would we have the inherent desire to live eternally-forever-if it was not our Creator's purpose that this desire be satisfied? "
The author then poses the question: "Should we trust science, and the efforts of man to give us eternal life, or trust to God?" He answers: (again quoting) :
"Really, though, human efforts have proved totally ineffective in stopping aging or in conquering death."
The author goes on to expound one of the major tenets of the Jehovah Witnesses: that earth shall be made an earthly paradise, where men shall live forever, in the flesh, under God.
Those cryonicists who are believers, might be disappointed that the author did not allow for the possibility that God would work through man to accomplish this "life everlasting." None-the-less, it is heartening that at least one Christian writer believes that there is nothing wrong with the desire to be immortal, and sees the desire fulfilled as physical immortality upon this earth, not spiritual (extra-corporal) immortality in heaven!
Any reader who wants the complete text of this article should contact John Bull by email: jbull@cfl.rr.com
Book review: The Philosophy of Robert Ettinger, eds Charles Tandy and Scott R Stroud.
Reviewer John de Rivaz
This volume consists of a series of articles, written by different authors to the level of university standard philosophical dissertations. As I am in no way professionally qualified as a philosopher, I will have to review this book as a lay reader, and as an interested person being a signed up cryonicist. My comments are my own in this capacity, not profound philosophical remarks.
In particular, I need to ask myself whether by reading it have I learned things that I haven't considered following regular reading of Cryonet and The Immortalist. As this review is being submitted to The Immortalist for publication I also need to ask whether the things I have learned are going to be helpful in considering whether to remain a signed up cryonicist and whether they will be helpful in discussing cryonics with other people.
It has been said elsewhere that when and if cryonics is proven to be viable, everything any cryonicist has ever written will be dissected in the minutest detail and discussed by future historians for as long as history is debated. Books discussing the points made in The Prospect of Immortality and similar works will appear in their hundreds, if not thousands. This book preceded that event, and for that reason could have been regarded as a particularly interesting glimpse into a possible future. - That is except for the fact that the majority of the articles were pessimistic or negative in their conclusions. One reasons for this could be that the articles were themselves based on classical works of philosophy from the 19th century. Some even referred to the works of Socrates, composed thousands of years in the past. This book therefore is therefore not only a product of times in which cryonic revivals have not occurred, but also times when the annihilation of the individual seemed as even more certain than the idea that daylight will return at dawn.
Whether our future is the golden future of Man into Superman or something less than ideal was the topic of many of these articles. They can be compared to writings at the dawn of the Age of Steam, before which most people (except the greatly privileged) could seldom travel more than they could walk. Today we have fragmented families and commuting times that are becoming an appreciable portion of time spent away from home in order to earn money. I wonder if anyone at the dawn of the Steam Age predicted this.. They can also be compared to writings at the dawn of the computer and internet age, where the utopia of everyone working from home was proposed (for example, see
The book starts with a foreword: Freeze-Wait-Reanimate! In which Charles Tandy gives a brief introduction to the book, its editor and subject.
The first main article is The Prisoner's Dilemma, Collective Rationality, And The Prospect Of An Indefinite Prolongation Of Life by John M. Collins. It raises some interesting points about ethics and self and group interest. The concept was introduced that if civilisation adopts policy A instead of policy B, even if A is less "ethical" than B the succeeding generation will be comprised of totally different people, therefore selecting the ethical alternative (or visa versa) would result in the total annihilation of the generation that would have followed it.
The next is Desirable And Undesirable Immortality: Ettinger And Arendt On Coping With Human Finitude by Farhang Erfani. In this article a potted history of government from kings through democracy to some post-democratic dictatorships is used as the basis to suggest that avoidance of the death of the individual is a bad idea. Although I can't agree with the conclusion, I do feel that the article gives food for thought and I cannot fault the concept of approving the annihilation of individuals coupled with a history of government that ends with Hitler and Stalin. Brilliant! (even if the author didn't intend it quite that way.)
Another naysaying article follows, Immortality, Death, And Our Obligations To Future Generations by Richard V. Greene. This presented cryonics as a burden on future generations. However it did not manage resolve the conundrum that "not doing something to preserve individuals' lives" is the same as "doing something to exterminate individuals when they are no longer any productive use". From time to time governments emerge that attempt to exterminate unwanted citizens, the latest victims being the Kurds.
It seems to be a human characteristic for the rest of humanity to remove these governments sooner or later. I suspect that the same characteristic would also lead to all available cryopreserved bodies being reanimated if this is physically possible. I remain convinced that any philosophising that suggests that reanimation is an unethical burden should belong in the same class as the rationale that causes governments to eliminate unwanted individuals as a matter of general policy. But this article gives the reader a chance to work through the ideas involved, just as a reading of Mein Kampf is essential to any student of government and authority. Maybe it could be argued that the article has failed inasmuch as I have not been shaken from my previous beliefs by reading it, or maybe it is plain wrong. - Or maybe I am too thick to see the point. But if the latter applies, then there could be some advantage in not thinking too much.
Time Shock And The Problem Of Anachronistic Being: An Anthropological Approach To Cryonics by James C. Lindahl, considers the problem of continuity of self after emigration to another time. He points out that every technological advance beings benefits and problems, as I mentioned earlier. The trite answer to all of this is that "first you save your life then you worry about these issues" but nevertheless if you have the time and inclination, then this article presents several avenues for thought.
As the caring aspects of cryonics (as opposed to burning or rotting a body) have drawn people to the movement, the title Caring Cryonics? by Rita C. Manning seemed as though it would be about this. However it looked a different aspects of caring, the caring for people both financially and physically during the process of cryopreservation and possible reanimation. Male and female gender perspectives were discussed, and the effects on family units. The conclusion wasn't particularly favourable to the concept of cryonics, but again the old issue arises - is this a valid reason for killing people by default?
The question of the nature of the individual ("The Soul") is the real subject of an article entitled Ettinger And Immortality by Scott D. O'Reilly It concludes that metaphysical ideas may show that physical cryonics is unnecessary. No compulsion anywhere, you make you own choice. No one can argue with that!
A Kantian Critique Of Cryonic Immortality by Scott R. Stroud may have philosophical merit, but I have to confess that it went right over my head!
The Anti-Death Philosophy Of N. F. Fedorov by Charles Tandy and R. Michael Perry is a version of the article that appeared in Venturist Voice and Longevity Report and probably elsewhere as well. A version can be found on
Immortality, Identity, And The Grounds Of Egoistic Concern by Scott D. Wilson is yet another naysaying article, based on Bernard Williams' famous (or infamous) paper The Tedium of Immortality. What I see as fallacious is that a single person can understand everything there is to know about the universe however long he lives. The other fallacy in relation to cryonics is that cryonics doesn't necessarily imply immortality, just indefinite (not infinite) lifespan. The very word "Immortality" is a nonsense word - you cannot know that you are immortal unless you have lived an infinite time. Infinity is unattainable by definition.
Maybe the word "immortal" is the very source of all the negativity expressed in these articles. If someone had proposed that instead of having old age pensions everyone was put in camps and gassed to death when they could no longer work I cannot seriously imagine that any of these authors would have been willing to second this proposal. Indeed if someone had suggested that all medical care beyond pain control be denied those incapable of work because of age, I cannot see any of these authors supporting the proposition. If someone aged 65 years was a victim of a "dread disease" and could be cured by medical treatment, and if so cured could possibly live to 120 years in reasonable health, should society deny him the treatment on the basis that he would be an economic burden? Again I would doubt any of these authors would promote such a dreadful idea.
Whether these "dreadful" ideas can be supported by learned and valid philosophical debate I have no doubt, presumably Hitler and his colleagues did just that. No doubt I could wade through Mein Kampf and find the arguments, but I have neither the time nor inclination. But surely the human instinct to preserve individual life stands out above all of this, rendering such arguments ultimately fallacious.
The Prospect Of Mortality: Buddhist And Heideggerian Critical Reflections On Ettinger by
Jason M. Wirth starts with comments similar to those I have made bout the actual word "Immortality". It then goes on to use concepts generated thousands of years ago by various religious philosophers as to why personal "immortality" would be undesirable. Finally 1950s anti-technology ideas were presented.
The book ends with an Afterword from Robert Ettinger, which gave some ideas from his work in progress Youniverse. There was the odd comment about some of the suggestions made by the philosophers who wrote the preceding articles, but the bulk of the material was about philosophy itself, and the various theorems and paradoxes that have occupied people's minds down the centuries.
In conclusion I look again at the questions I asked. It may be a failing of myself rather than the book, but there is little that I hadn't already considered about cryonics here. Despite the learned weight of some of the naysayers, they have not persuaded me that I should change my mind about being signed up for cryopreservation. As to the book being helpful, well yes, it could be helpful to some people to see the reasoning behind the many who reject cryonics. People who reject cryonics for themselves are sad, from our perspective. But those who seek to impose their rejection on others are just as worrying as anything else what threatens our lives. None of these authors said that cryonics should be withheld by violent force (which term includes force of law).
But they do tell us how people who may consider using the violent force of legislation could be justifying their actions. I wonder if Adolf Hitler and similar authors in the 1920s and 1930s had been more widely read, whether other politicians and philosophers could not have read their works and seen the dangers to come and done something about it.
This book could be a useful volume for those cryonicists looking to exactly that - see the dangers to come.
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Small Print:
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Sincerely, John de Rivaz: http://John.deRivaz.com for websites including Cryonics Europe, Longevity Report, The Venturists, Porthtowan, Alec Harley Reeves - inventor, Arthur Bowker - potter, de Rivaz genealogy, Nomad .. and more
