Cryo- Words Meaning Cold: “cryomorphology” to “urinocryoscopy”
Part 2 of 2.
Words that include: cryo-, cry-, kryo-, kry- (Greek: cold, freezing).
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“cryo-, cry-” words.
cryomorphology:
In geology, a branch of geomorphology that involves the study of the processes and features of cold climates.
Cryolophosaurus ellito:
Frozen crested reptile.
cryolysis:
Destruction by cold.
cryometer:
A device for measuring very low temperatures.
cryometry:
The measurement or recording of extremely low temperatures, especially using a cryometer.
cryonics:
1. Any of several medical techniques that use cold for therapeutic purposes, such as using ice to deaden pain.
2. The study or practice of keeping a newly dead body at an extremely low temperature in the hope of restoring it to life later with the help of future medical advances; a contraction of cryogenics.
The following is a summary of the article, “The Ultimate Long-Term Play: Betting on Eternal Life” by Philip Segal in the December 11-12, 1999, issue of the International Herald Tribune, pages 15 and 17.
- There are risks involved in the nascent business of cryonics, which is the deep freezing at death of human bodies for preservation and possible revival in the future.
- The biggest problem is that, for now, it is impossible to freeze people and bring them back to life.
- On the other hand, if cryonics fails, you were already dead anyway.
- Small wonder that one of the major purveyors of cryonics services, the Alcor Life Extension Foundation, boasts on its Web site that “Since its inception in 1972, Alcor has not lost a single patient.”
- Although it comes from the same root, kryos, the Greek word for cold, cryonics is not to be confused with the mainstream sciences of cryogenics or cryobiology.
- These involve freezing of metals or of simple organisms. Metals get stronger after deep freezing, while the freezing and thawing of cancerous tissue can be a good way to kill it.
- Cryonics seeks to do the opposite. The goal is to freeze a human head (known in the business as a “neuro contract”) or an entire body until the technology exists to graft a new body onto the head, clone a new person from preserved DNA, or heal a sick body that has been preserved.
- “Cryonics is not a term which is used in any scientific context,” said David Pegg, a professor of biology at York University in England and the editor of the journal Cryobiology. “It is a term invented by people who wish to preserve dead bodies.”
- Cryonics companies pump what is effectively anti-freeze into the bodies of dead people (referred to as patients) in an effort to stop icicles from forming and damaging cell walls.
- Getting yourself cryonically preserved costs as little as $28,000 or more than $125,000, depending on whether you pay up front or by the month.
- The various cryonics businesses encourage people to take out life insurance and use the benefits to cover the cost.
- The biggest single risk of cryonics is that the company may not be around in 300 to 400 years to unfreeze you, if technology permits.
It should be noted that humans are not the only bodies that are “
cryonized”. When I paid a visit to Alcor for research about cryonics several years ago (in 1993, when it was still in Riverside, California), I was told that some people also had their pets (dogs and cats) frozen so they might also be “animated” (“decryonized”?) sometime in the future.
—John Robertson, Word Quests lexicographer
cryobiology:
The study of the effects of low temperatures on living organisms.
cryopathy:
A morbid condition in which exposure to cold is an important factor. Also frigorism.
cryopedology:
A branch of geology that involves the study of frost action and the occurrence of frozen ground.
cryopexy:
In retinal detachment surgery, sealing the sensory retina to the pigment epithelium and choroid by a freezing probe applied to the sclera.
cryophil, cryophile, cryophilia, cryophilic, cryophillia, cryophillic, cryophilous, cryophily:
1. Thriving at low temperatures.
2. Preferring cold conditions.
cryophobia:
1. A hatred, or fear, of being cold.
2. Unable to exist in cold temperatures.
cryophorus:
An instrument for showing the freezing of water by its own evaporation.
cryophylactic:
Resistant to low temperatures; said of bacteria.
cryophysics:
A branch of physics that is concerned with processes and phenomena at temperatures approaching absolute zero.
cryophytes:
1. Plants that grow on ice or snow.
2. Plants thriving at low temperatures; such as, algae, bacteria, and fungi on snow and ice.
cryoplankton:
Planktonic organisms of persistent snow, ice, and glacial waters.
cryoplanation:
Land erosion that results from processes associated with intensive frost action.
cryoprecipitate:
Precipitate which forms when soluble material is cooled, especially with reference to the precipitate that forms in normal blood plasma which has been subjected to cold precipitation and which is rich in factor VIII.
cryoprecipitation:
The process of forming a cryoprecipitate from solution.
cryopreservation, cryopreserve:
1. Maintenance of the viability of excised tissues or organs at extremely low temperatures.
2. The process of storing semen, ova, corneas, embryos, bone marrow, or body tissue at extremely low temperatures for future use.
cryoprobe:
1. An instrument used in cryosurgery to apply extreme cold to a selected area.
2. A surgical instrument for conducting intense cold to small areas of body tissues in order to destroy those areas.
cryoprostatectomy:
Destruction of the prostate gland by freezing, utilizing a specially designed cryoprobe.
cryoprotective, cryroprotection:
Capable of protecting against injury due to freezing, as glycerol protects frozen red blood cells.
cryoprotectant:
Substance that is used to protect from the effects of freezing, largely by preventing large ice crystals from forming. The two commonly used for freezing cells are DMSO (dimethyl sulfoxide) or glycerol.
cryoprotein:
A protein that precipitates from solution when cooled and redissolves upon warming.
cryopulvinectomy:
Destruction of the pulvinar by the application of extreme cold.
cryosar:
A cryogenic semiconductor device designed for very high speed computer switching and memory applications.
cryoscope, kryoscope:
1. An instrument for measuring the freezing point.
2. An apparatus for performing cryoscopy.
cryoscopy, cryoscopic, cryoscopical, kryoscopy:
1. The determination of the freezing point of a fluid, usually blood or urine, compared with that of distilled water.
2. Examination of liquids, based on the principle that the freezing point of solutions varies according to the amount and the nature of the substance contained in them in solution. Also algoscopy.
cryosisms:
Frostquakes.
cryosistor:
A cryogenic semiconductor device that, after ionization, can act as a three-terminal switch, a pulse amplifier, an oscillator, or a unipolar transistor.
cryospasm:
Spasm produced by cold.
cryosphere:
The region of the earth’s surface that is frozen throughout the year.
cryostat:
1. A freezing chamber.
2. A device by which temperature can be maintained at a very low level.
3. In pathology and histology, a chamber containing a microtome for sectioning frozen tissue.
4. A regulator for maintaining a constant, low temperature.
cryosurgeon:
One who uses freezing temperature to destroy diseased tissue.
cryosurgery, cryosurgical:
1. An operation using freezing temperature (achieved by liquid nitrogen or carbon dioxide) to destroy diseased tissue.
2. Destruction of tissue by the application of extreme cold; utilized in some forms of intracranial and cutaneous surgery.
cryothalamectomy, cryothalamotomy:
Destruction of the thalamus by the application of extreme cold.
cryotherapy:
1. The use of cold in the treatment of disease.
2. Medical treatment that involves cooling the body, especially by applying ice packs.
cryotolerant:
Tolerant of very low temperatures.
cryotropism, cryotropic:
An orientation response to the stimulus of cold or frost.
cryoturbation:
Disturbance of the soil surface by the action of freezing or of alternate freezing and thawing.
cryoultramicrotomy:
The technique of using a cryostat or freezing microtome, in which the temperature is regulated to -20 degrees Celsius, to cut ultrathin frozen sections for microscopic (usually, electron microscopic) examination.
cyclocryotherapy:
Transscleral freezing of the ciliary body in the treatment of glaucoma.
hemocryoscopy:
Determination of the freezing point of blood.
hypercryalgesia:
1. Extreme sensibility to cold.
2. Excessive pain resulting from exposure to cold.
hypercryesthesia:
Extreme sensibility to cold.
hypocryalgesia:
Decreased pain resulting from exposure to cold.
hypocryesthesia:
Decreased sensitivity to cold.
urinocryoscopy:
Cryoscopy of urine or determining the freezing point of urine.
Quiz
You may take a self-scoring quiz over some of the words in this section by clicking on
Cryo Quiz #2 to see how much you have learned about these words.