Cryonics is the most recent attempt by Humans to preserve the human
body after death. Mammoths have been frozen in Siberia and Alaska for 30,000
years and are still in good shape. The flesh is there...the blood is there...
the DNA is in great shape. In antartic there are frozen corpses from an
ill fated British expedition of the early 1800's. The crewmen who died were
buried in the ground. In the 1950's, an expedition of doctors exhumed the
two dead crewmen. They were in perfect shape and the amount of time was over
100 years. Cryonics is developing in Oakland, California and Scottsdale,
Arizona. People pay to have their heads or entire body put in liquid nitrogen
and attended until technology is advanced enough to revive them. The storage
vats are like big thermos bottles. Liquid nitrogen is poured in from time to
time to replenish what has evaporated. If there is a power outage there will
be no harm to the time traveler. Doctor DuCharme of the Scottsdale, Arizona
group of Cryonics travelers has written a book that is about nanotechnology
bringing back to life folks that have been frozen. Most of the literature
about cryonics is about creating chemicals that do not damage the cells at
low temperatures. Water crystals tear cells when the water freezes. Researchers
are developing anti-freezes that do not damage cells at liquid nitrogen
temperatures. Hibernating animals use anti-freeze to remain alive even
though the temperatures are below freezing. Researchers have frozen a
dog and brought him back to life after something like 30 minutes. The hope
of course is to make the work of repair by nanotechnology simple so that
the patient can be revived without a great deal of expense and fuss.
|