Re: Radioactive decay and long-term preservation

From: Spike Jones (spike66@ibm.net)
Date: Thu Oct 21 1999 - 23:03:20 MDT


Jeff Davis wrote:

> ...Perhaps someone else can translate this into rads or some other useful
> metric of overall radiation damage....

If we are concerned with the Radioactive decay for cryonic preservation
(now that I think about it, I believe it was Robert Bradbury that started
this thread) then we also need to think about what effect typical ionizing
radiation has on matter at liquid nitrogen temperatures. The potassium
decays would be predominantly in the skull, the bony material having
much more patassium than the brain itself.

I think that radiation would be of little consequence in comparison to
the transmutation of elements resulting from beta decay. spike



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