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BloodshotPizzaBox t1_ixkgywo wrote

Largely, by introducing agents that inhibit the growth of ice crystals. Smaller ice crystals mean less cell damage.

In broad strokes, this is similar to some of the measures often used to keep your ice cream smooth and creamy instead of just being frozen cream cubes.

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zebediah49 t1_ixlzunc wrote

Speed is also important. The slower you freeze something, the bigger the ice crystals, can get, and they wreck everything. It's why frozen pizza went from "trash" to "actually pretty okay" after the invention of flash freezing.

The smaller the object, the faster you can freeze it. As you try to freeze bigger things, at some point, because heat has to travel via conduction from inside to outside, you can't freeze your sample any faster.

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SeventySealsInASuit t1_ixno2z8 wrote

Speed is more important. You can freeze and reanimate things like rats using a microwave and something sufficiently cooling.

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