Hi all- I work with artificial insemination and have recently wondered how sperm/ eggs/ embryos be frozen in liquid nitrogen (for years!) and then later thawed (in about 60 seconds) where it’s then back to functioning like normal, but you can’t freeze a living person and then unfreeze them again? At what developmental point can you stop freezing biological material before it won’t work again? (No political motive here, just questioning the science behind it, please please no arguing)
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In an article I read about freezing hamsters, and then thawing them with a microwave, the scientist explained that freezing is a process we have down to bring well executed and understood. Thawing is the problem. There’s a limit to how quickly you can thaw a large object, and if you can’t do it quickly enough then the subject dies.
To your question, sperm are so small that this process is relatively simple and easy because there’s not a lot of mass to worry about. They are also very simple cells without a lot of complex machinery
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