Freezing Life: Cryogenics Is The Last Hope For Many Endangered Species
singularityhub.comThe Great Barrier Reef is dying. As pollution and other man-made influences threaten the reef, which is not expected to survive past 2050, Australian scientists are taking measures to freeze the corals’ demise – literally. They hope to save the endangered species by freezing eggs and sperm from the coral, then fertilize and regrow the coral in the lab. As they enter the deep freeze, the Great Barrier Reef coral will become the latest in a large number of species stockpiled in cryogenic chambers in an attempt to reverse the advance towards extinction.
Guy behind cryogenic freezing has two frozen wives
No, really. Robert Ettinger, widely regarded as “the father of cryonics,” passed away on Saturday at the age of 92. Naturally, The Cryonics Institute has frozen his body in liquid nitrogen at minus 321 degrees Fahrenheit.
I’m really hoping the process works and he can be brought to life at some point in the future, because according to this article at Daily Tech, his two wives are frozen there as well.
That’s right: at some point in a future I really hope to live to see, Robert Ettinger is going to be brought back to life and have to choose between his first wife, who was preserved in 1987, and his second wife, who was preserved in 2001.
This just proves we will still need physical currency in the future. For the coin flipping. - Matt
Heaven for Atheists | The Humanist
thehumanist.orgBaby It’s Cold Inside (My Brain, that is)
Now imagine that a human could be captured in that time after the heart stops and before the brain starts to degrade and that he or she could be suspended in this state indefinitely, like hitting pause on the dying process. Let’s say that, hypothetically, the body (or at least the brain) could be revived from that state (“unpaused”) at a time of more advanced technology, a time when the person could be treated for whatever caused the body to start shutting down in the first place—cancer, for example. And if such technology existed, then (in the case where the head is the only thing preserved), the technology for regrowing the body for the brain (or at the very least, creating a bionic one) should reasonably exist as well.
June 16: Against nature
17.01 BBC News: ANGLO-AMERICAN INITIATIVE TO PRESERVE
STEPHEN FRY AFTER DEATH. In response to predictions of a
meltdown in the “digital economy” when Stephen Fry dies, the
US Department of Homeland Security’s Janet Napolitano and
the UK Government’s Eric Pickles announced joint funding for
a competition to design what sources were calling “Fry’s
gadget death wagon”. The winning design will include a
cryogenic chamber with a special gadget-shaped pipe,
through which expensive consumer electronics will be passed
to the frozen Fry, and an exit hatch that will open to
emit what Pickles described as “Stephen’s self-disgracing
mouthy ephemera”. Yesterday’s shocking report from the Coulter Foundation
suggested that after Fry conks out Apple will lose four fifths of its
value, and that Twitter will continue not to make any money.
The Curious Case of Human Hibernation
Klint Finley
A couple years ago Inhuman Experiment did a run down of cases of humans hibernation, from Russian peasants to trapped skiers:
During the same TED Talk, he mentions experiments showing that if you reduce the oxygen content in the air slightly, roundworms die, and if you reduce it a lot – down to 10 ppm – they stop moving and appear dead but are in fact alive in a state of suspended animation. Unlike their animated and lively friends, these suspended roundworms can be put into cold temperatures without harm.
Exposing an organism to hydrogen sulfide is another way to achieve the same effect as reducing the oxygen content of a container or a room. By binding at the same cell site as oxygen, hydrogen sulfide reduces the need for oxygen, depressing metabolism. Roth theorizes that perhaps hydrogen sulfide production was increased in Bågenholm’s own body when she fell under the ice, thus preventing her from dying from the cold.
The first practical application of this technique is surgery, which requires mild hypothermia to prevent harming patients. Even with a small amount of injectable hydrogen sulfide, which Roth’s company has developed, the results are apparently better than with a traditional approach. Safety studies are already done, and human trials are underway.
While this is undoubtedly a great medical breakthrough, I can’t help but think of other possible applications. What Roth has done is deanimate a mouse by reducing its metabolism and then bring it back to life unharmed. If the human trials are succesful, could this mean hydrogen sulfide might be used even outside surgery? Are we talking about a potential lightweight version of cryonics?
Full Story: Inhuman Experiment: The Curious Case of Human Hibernation
(Thanks OVO)
See also:
Pentagon: Zombie Pigs First, Then Hibernating Soldiers
Robert Ettinger, founder of cryonics dies at the age of 92. OR DID HE?
Robert Ettinger, considered to be the father of cryonics, went into the deep freeze after his “death” on Saturday at the age of 92. Ettinger was the author of ‘The Prospect of Immortality” (1962) in which he made the case that people could be frozen upon death and, in the future, medical technology will have advanced far enough to repair and awaken them.
