// Depressed Metabolism: The Science of Personal Survival

Because the current generation of vitrification agents permit cryopreservation of the brain without ice formation, the current objective of cryonics research is maintenance of viability of the brain during cryopreservation. The most popular viability assay that has been used in cryonics and cryonics-associated cryobiology research is the potassium/sodium ratio (K+/Na+ ratio). Because the ability [...]

An ongoing quest in cryonics is the successful demonstration of memory sustainment after cryopreservation of the brain and rewarming from cryogenic temperatures. To that end, landmark experiments were performed by Pichugin, et al. (2006) on rat hippocampal brain slices which indicate that the hippocampus retains excellent structural integrity and viability (as measured by Na+/K+ ion [...]