2-14. Who froze the roundworms? What happened? (Cryonics)
Description
This article is from the Cryonics FAQ, by Tim Freeman tim@infoscreen.com with numerous contributions by others.
2-14. Who froze the roundworms? What happened? (Cryonics)
(This text is quoted with slight modifications from CRYOMSG 790 posted
by Charles Platt)
Gerry Arthus, Alcor New York's Coordinator, has announced preliminary
results of an experiment which was designed to investigate whether
memories will survive cryonic suspension.
For his experiment, Gerry used Caenorhabditis elegans, a nematode
(tiny worm) that's one of the simplest living creatures. It has a
complete nervous system, however, and can be "trained" in a
rudimentary way. Worms that are raised in a warm environment will
"remember" it and will prefer it if they are given the choice.
Conversely, worms that were raised in a cooler area will tend to
prefer that environment.
Gerry placed a small number of worms in a cryoprotective solution and
froze them to -80 degrees Celsius for two hours. After he revived the
worms, the ones that survived the experience still "remembered" their
former environmental preferences. So far as we know, this is the
world's first experiment designed to verify that memory is chemically
encoded and will survive the freezing process.
The sample that Gerry used is too small to prove anything
conclusively. Soon, however, Gerry hopes to repeat the experiment with
a larger sample. He also intends to devise tests to eliminate the
possibility that the worms changed physiologically to adapt themselves
to warmer or cooler environments.
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