Huge leap for brain preservation
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John Clark
Apr 7, 2026, 3:36:48 PM (9 days ago) Apr 7
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The following was in the March 28, 2026 issue of New Scientist:
John K Clark See what's on my list at Extropolis
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ilsa
Apr 8, 2026, 6:20:57 AM (9 days ago) Apr 8
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This link opened in Russian and then got really weird like it had a virus or something could you clean it up and send it to me I'd love to read the article
Ilsa Bartlett
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John Clark
Apr 8, 2026, 6:38:20 AM (9 days ago) Apr 8
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Giulio Prisco
Apr 8, 2026, 9:27:14 AM (9 days ago) Apr 8
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You can download the full New Scientist issue from here:
https://freemagazines.top/new-scientist-international-edition-no-3588-28-march-2026
> To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/extropolis/CAN3PQpEikMB-o8LZpLm2DmLpcftHhtqpdzhOvmfgM8-hfpSnYg%40mail.gmail.com.
https://freemagazines.top/new-scientist-international-edition-no-3588-28-march-2026
Giulio Prisco
Apr 9, 2026, 3:19:52 AM (8 days ago) Apr 9
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Full text:
AN ENTIRE mammalian brain
has been successfully preserved
using a technique that will now
be offered to people who are
terminally ill. The intention
is to preserve all the neural
information thought necessary to
one day reconstruct the mind of
the person it once belonged to.
“They would need to donate their
brain and body for scientific
research,
” says Borys Wróbel at
Nectome in Portland, Oregon,
a research company focused on
memory preservation.
“But what
we are offering...is for their body
and brain to be kept, essentially
indefinitely, in the hope that,
sometime in the future, it would be
possible to read out the
information from the brain and
reconstruct the person… to allow
them to continue, in effect, with
their life.
”
When it comes to preserving the
minute architecture of the brain,
timing is critical.
Within minutes of blood no longer
circulating, enzymes break down
neurons and cells start digesting
themselves.
Cryonics usually involves
preserving people’s bodies at
low temperatures in the hope that
they could one day be revived if a
treatment or cure for their medical
condition becomes available.
Traditionally, this aims to preserve
the brain quickly after natural
death by cooling it and adding
fixatives, but unless the cryonics
team is at a person’s bedside,
deterioration will have already
begun before this occurs.
To circumvent this, Wróbel and
his team have developed a protocol
that is compatible with physician-
assisted death, in which a person
who is terminally ill chooses the
time of their passing. The idea is
that by intervening immediately,
scientists may have the best chance
of preserving the brain in a state
that closely reflects
living condition.
Wróbel and his team tested the
protocol on pigs, which have brain
and cardiovascular anatomy that
is comparable to that of people.
First, they inserted a cannula into
the heart roughly 10 minutes after
cardiac arrest, before flushing
out the blood and introducing
preservation solutions into
the brain. These fluids contain
aldehyde chemicals, which
create molecular bridges between
cells, essentially locking cellular
activity in place.
They then introduced
cryoprotectants, which replace
water within tissue, preventing the
formation of ice crystals during
cooling, which would otherwise
damage cells. Next, the brain was
cooled to around -32°C (-25.6°F),
at which point it can be preserved
for hundreds of years.
To assess how well this
worked, the team took samples
from the brain’s outermost layer
and examined them using
microscopy. Early attempts, in
which perfusion began around
18 minutes after death, showed
clear signs of cellular damage.
After reducing this delay to just
under 14 minutes, the tissue
showed excellent preservation of
the minute structures, including
neurons, synapses and the
molecules that compose them
(bioRxiv, doi.org/qwfb).
Wróbel says, in theory,
they could use this protocol “to
reconstruct the three-dimensional
structure of the neurons and the
connections between them”. This
is known as the connectome, and
it is hoped that, by mapping it out,
it might help us understand how
the brain produces our thoughts,
feelings and perceptions. So far,
scientists have managed to map
only a small part of the mouse
brain in this way, which took
seven years to complete.
Despite advances in both
cryopreservation and computing,
“reanimation” isn’t yet an option.
The approach is essentially
a form of fixation using toxic
chemicals that preserves the
structure of the brain and
neurons, but without expectation
of biological viability,” says Joao
Pedro de Magalhaes at the
University of Birmingham, UK.
Profound questions
De Magalhaes also isn’t
convinced a person could “live
on” by reconstructing their
connectome. “Even a perfect
copy of my mind would still be
a different entity,” he says.
Nevertheless, Wróbel’s team
thinks the human mind could
one day be recreated, digitally or
biologically. “Although we’re
agnostic towards the type of revival
methods, we think we may be able
to preserve all the information
needed for revival, ” says Wróbel.
He says the team at Nectome is
preparing to invite people with a
terminal illness to Oregon, where
they can spend a few days with
their family, before taking part
in the new protocol. “They would
come to us, take the medication –
which would have to be prescribed
by an independent doctor, not us –
and then, after it is legal to do so,
we would start the surgery.”
The work raises profound
philosophical questions about
our definition of death.
“The ability to preserve the
detailed structural and molecular
composition of a brain... even after
considerable periods of stopped
blood circulation... underscores
that the difference between life and
death is more complicated than
just cessation of vital functions,”
says Brian Wowk at biotechnology
company 21st Century Medicine
in Fontana, California.
AN ENTIRE mammalian brain
has been successfully preserved
using a technique that will now
be offered to people who are
terminally ill. The intention
is to preserve all the neural
information thought necessary to
one day reconstruct the mind of
the person it once belonged to.
“They would need to donate their
brain and body for scientific
research,
” says Borys Wróbel at
Nectome in Portland, Oregon,
a research company focused on
memory preservation.
“But what
we are offering...is for their body
and brain to be kept, essentially
indefinitely, in the hope that,
sometime in the future, it would be
possible to read out the
information from the brain and
reconstruct the person… to allow
them to continue, in effect, with
their life.
”
When it comes to preserving the
minute architecture of the brain,
timing is critical.
Within minutes of blood no longer
circulating, enzymes break down
neurons and cells start digesting
themselves.
Cryonics usually involves
preserving people’s bodies at
low temperatures in the hope that
they could one day be revived if a
treatment or cure for their medical
condition becomes available.
Traditionally, this aims to preserve
the brain quickly after natural
death by cooling it and adding
fixatives, but unless the cryonics
team is at a person’s bedside,
deterioration will have already
begun before this occurs.
To circumvent this, Wróbel and
his team have developed a protocol
that is compatible with physician-
assisted death, in which a person
who is terminally ill chooses the
time of their passing. The idea is
that by intervening immediately,
scientists may have the best chance
of preserving the brain in a state
that closely reflects
living condition.
Wróbel and his team tested the
protocol on pigs, which have brain
and cardiovascular anatomy that
is comparable to that of people.
First, they inserted a cannula into
the heart roughly 10 minutes after
cardiac arrest, before flushing
out the blood and introducing
preservation solutions into
the brain. These fluids contain
aldehyde chemicals, which
create molecular bridges between
cells, essentially locking cellular
activity in place.
They then introduced
cryoprotectants, which replace
water within tissue, preventing the
formation of ice crystals during
cooling, which would otherwise
damage cells. Next, the brain was
cooled to around -32°C (-25.6°F),
at which point it can be preserved
for hundreds of years.
To assess how well this
worked, the team took samples
from the brain’s outermost layer
and examined them using
microscopy. Early attempts, in
which perfusion began around
18 minutes after death, showed
clear signs of cellular damage.
After reducing this delay to just
under 14 minutes, the tissue
showed excellent preservation of
the minute structures, including
neurons, synapses and the
molecules that compose them
(bioRxiv, doi.org/qwfb).
Wróbel says, in theory,
they could use this protocol “to
reconstruct the three-dimensional
structure of the neurons and the
connections between them”. This
is known as the connectome, and
it is hoped that, by mapping it out,
it might help us understand how
the brain produces our thoughts,
feelings and perceptions. So far,
scientists have managed to map
only a small part of the mouse
brain in this way, which took
seven years to complete.
Despite advances in both
cryopreservation and computing,
“reanimation” isn’t yet an option.
The approach is essentially
a form of fixation using toxic
chemicals that preserves the
structure of the brain and
neurons, but without expectation
of biological viability,” says Joao
Pedro de Magalhaes at the
University of Birmingham, UK.
Profound questions
De Magalhaes also isn’t
convinced a person could “live
on” by reconstructing their
connectome. “Even a perfect
copy of my mind would still be
a different entity,” he says.
Nevertheless, Wróbel’s team
thinks the human mind could
one day be recreated, digitally or
biologically. “Although we’re
agnostic towards the type of revival
methods, we think we may be able
to preserve all the information
needed for revival, ” says Wróbel.
He says the team at Nectome is
preparing to invite people with a
terminal illness to Oregon, where
they can spend a few days with
their family, before taking part
in the new protocol. “They would
come to us, take the medication –
which would have to be prescribed
by an independent doctor, not us –
and then, after it is legal to do so,
we would start the surgery.”
The work raises profound
philosophical questions about
our definition of death.
“The ability to preserve the
detailed structural and molecular
composition of a brain... even after
considerable periods of stopped
blood circulation... underscores
that the difference between life and
death is more complicated than
just cessation of vital functions,”
says Brian Wowk at biotechnology
company 21st Century Medicine
in Fontana, California.
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