As water freezes within the delicate cellular makeup, these crystals expand, puncturing membranes, disrupting the intricate network of neurons and ultimately destroying the connections that underlie thought, memory and consciousness...
However, a team of neurologists at the University of Erlangen–Nuremberg in Germany circumvented this problem by turning to a technique known as vitrification...
The team applied this method to thin slices of mouse hippocampus, a region critical for learning and memory, cooling them to -196 degrees Celsius (about -321 degrees Fahrenheit) with liquid nitrogen.
Join the Conversation
VIP members get the ability to comment on articles.