Science: Deep-Freeze

After long years of work in a jumbled, gadget-filled laboratory at St. Louis University, a biologist announced 14 years ago some results of his experiments with the mysterious forces of life & death. Basile J. Luyet, a priest of the order of missionaries of St. Francis de Sales, had succeeded in freezing onion skin and other plant tissue into a state of suspended animation: reheated, his experimental tissues began to grow again.

Father Luyet's modest report of his work furthered some extravagant speculation. Perhaps men might be put into deep-freeze and revived thousands of years later. At the very least, spermatozoa from exceptional males could Le saved to fertilize females of the future. Unconcerned with such lurid prophecies, Biologist Luyet went on with his experiment.

Beyond Death. The danger zone, Luyet found, was around — 20° F. At that temperature, moisture in the experimental tissues freezes into ice crystals, rearranging each cell's molecular structure into a "thermodynamically stable configuration" —the scientists' fancy name for death. What the experimenters needed was a quick-freeze system that would jump through the "death stage" in a split second, turn their research tissues into a vitreous, glasslike state before internal liquid had a chance to crystallize.

For such split-second cooling, Luyet and his associates built a kind of miniature ducking stool. With it they suspend bits of animal tissue and plant leaves over a container of liquid nitrogen kept at —320° F. One brief duck, and the cooling process is complete. Muscle tissue from the hearts of chick embryos has been successfully frozen by the clucking stool and later brought to life.

Back to Life. Luyet's next step was to develop a "freeze-dry" method so that frozen tissue could be dehydrated in a high vacuum. "It's one of my pet projects," he says. "We can think of the possibilities of drying a warm-blooded animal like a dog, rehydrating it and then expect it to live." The main problem, as Luyet sees it, is mechanical. It is not yet possible to freeze objects thicker than 1/100th of an inch into suspended animation.

Dehydration of animal life has long intrigued scientists. As early as 1776, an Italian, Abbe Spallanzani dried out microscopic rotifera and tardigrada, then brought them to life with water. But Spallanzani worried about the souls of his tiny experimental animals. Were they reborn or did entirely new souls develop after dehydration? He took his problems to caustic French Philosopher Voltaire, but got little help. If the rotifera and tardigrada regained life, Voltaire could see no reason why they should not acquire new souls. "The only thing I am really curious about," said he, "is, why does the Great Being grant the faculty of resurrection only to these little beasts? Les baleines doivent être bien jalouses [Whales must be very jealous]."