A search of PubMed (National Library of Medicine
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed
gave only 18 hits. However it turns out that there is a protist
parasite of fish called Cryptobia that causes a disease named
cryptobiosis so many of the citations are inappropriate.
Try
Gutierrez JC, Martin-Gonzalez A, Matsusaka T.
Towards a generalized model of encystment (cryptobiosis)
in ciliates: a review and a hypothesis.
Biosystems. 1990;24(1):17-24.
My favorite search service, www.google.com,
gave surprisingly little of use except a lot of tardigrade sites.
There must be a better search descriptor. Or else it is simply
not that active an area of research.
"George Hammond" <ghammond at mediaone.net> wrote in message
news:3A2F4FD6.F343A16 at mediaone.net...
> [Hammond]
> Cryptobiosis created quite a sensation in the 19th century
> when it was first discovered... even such luminaries as
> Paul Broca studied it.
> Turns out the mechanism is still not well understood
> in the 21st century.
> Small animals, less than 1-mm in size, composed typically
> of 1,000 cells, but having a brain, nervecords, digestive
> system, feet etc. (nematodes, tardigrades, brine shrimp,
> rotifers etc.) can actually be (naturally or artificially)
> decissitated, frozen, vacuumized, heated etc.. and are
> virtually ruled "dead", sometimes for years, decades or
> centuries... can then be revived by simply putting them
> in a drop of water! These are animals, not plants, mind
> you.
> In the 19th century this was considered proof of the
> "Resurrection" and caused quite a controversy.
> I am curious as to what present day thinking about
> this phenomena is.... e.g., are these animals actually
> "dead" during cryptobiosis? I mean, what is the
> definition of "dead"? Are spores dead?
> On the technical side, has any in depth research been
> done on the solid state structure of the cells? for
> instance, is their microtubulin activity during this
> phase? Any activity at all?
> does anybody know who the world's leading expert on this
> subject is? Any recent hi-grade research publications
> on the subject? Journals dedicated to the subject?
> --
> BE SURE TO VISIT MY WEBSITE, BELOW:
> -----------------------------------------------------------
> George Hammond, M.S. Physics
> Email: ghammond at mediaone.net> Website: http://people.ne.mediaone.net/ghammond/index.html> -----------------------------------------------------------