Science which has indeed taken over our contemporary world is set to move towards making groundbreaking innovations in Cryonics study.
Scientists are edging closer to a reality that once existed only in science-fiction – the ability to cryonically freeze and reawaken human beings.
In understanding the science behind the futuristic concept, it is important to understand the difference between cryonics and cryogenics.
Cryonics refers to the process by which an already-dead person’s body is preserved in the hope that they can be brought back to life and cured of their illness in the future.
Cryogenics is a field of study focused on the preservation of materials – or objects, including human bodies – through low temperatures.
Today, however, the terms are often used interchangeably.
Sci-fi films – such as the recently released Passengers starring Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence as shown in the above short clip – often depict the treatment as quick and effortless, leaving out large parts of the gory reality.
But a short video goes some way to explaining the fascinating, if not somewhat disgusting, process behind cryopreservation.
Once the person is declared dead, a response team races to the body in order to keep the blood flowing around the person as quickly as possibly to avoid any further damage.
The cadaver is then cooled in an ice bath before chemicals are injected to help avoid blood clotting and brain damage.
Once the body reaches the cryonics facility, it is further cooled until just above zero degrees before the blood is drained and replaced with “organ preservation fluid”.
America, along with Russia, are the only two countries in the world home to such a facility.
The body’s blood vessels are then injected with a cryoprotectant solution to avoid the formation of ice crystals in the vital organs before the corpse is cooled to -130C.
At this point the body is ready to be stored, lowered into a tank of liquid nitrogen at a chilly -196C.
Despite the treatment being commercially available to the general public – with prices soaring up to £52,000 – scientists have yet to make the crucial breakthrough allowing humans to be “defrosted” and revived.
And the news doesn’t sound good for those already in storage.
“We have many different organs and we know from research into preserving transplant organs that even if it were possible to successfully cryopreserve them, each would need to be cooled at a different rate and with a different mixture and concentration of cryoprotectants,” said Prof Ken Storey, from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.
“Even if you only wanted to preserve the brain, it has dozens of different areas, which would need to be cryopreserved using different protocols.”
Cryobiologist Dr Dayong Gao from the University of Washington, Seattle, added: “Even if you manage to limit the damage from cryoprotectants, the question remains of how they would be safely removed.
“The body could easily fracture like glass during warming due to thermal stress.”
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Via Daily Star UK
