Word: glycerol
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When autumn temperatures fall toward the freezing point, wise motorists put antifreeze in their radiators. Many wise insects do much the same thing, reports Biochemist Fred Smith of the University of Minnesota. What's more, their antifreeze is glycerol (glycerin), a chemical that closely resembles the ethylene glycol that is the basis for many antifreeze brands...
...past, medical men have learned to preserve isolated tissues--red blood cells of skin tissue, for example--by saturating them with glycerol and freezing them solid. Upon rewarming, these tissues have been brought back to life...
With whole organs like the heart, however, it is impossible to use this method, since the organ cannot remain alive outside the body long enough to be treated completely with glycerol. Furthermore, though other methods have actually been able to freeze the heart, no heart chilled in these ways has ever beaten again...
...taking out approximately 30 to 40 percent of the water from the small dog's heart used and then allowing it to soak in glycerol, the doctors lowered its freezing point to below minus eight degrees Centigrade. They kept the heart at minus eight degrees for all hour, rehydrated and rewarmed it, and placed it in the neck of a large dog, where it revived within 15 minutes and beat for an extended period...
...process has lengthened from 21 days to two years the period in which blood may be preserved. The technique involves a rapid and practical method of removing a glycerol preservative which freezes blood at 79 degrees below zero centigrade...