Cryonics: can death be avoided by freezing someone to revive in the future? – Explica

The idea that it is possible freeze someone immediately after he is declared legally dead to try to revive it in the future it is present in popular culture.

The cryonic It is the technique used to freeze a living being to the boiling point of nitrogen and thus avoid the decomposition of vital organs, the tissues that form them and the rest of the organism, all with the intention of prolonging their life even when they have been declared dead.

We have seen it in movies, series and science fiction stories. The fame of cryonics is such that the myth that Walt Disney remains in a frozen nitrogen chamber is globally recognized, although in reality the body of the creator of Mickey Mouse was cremated and his ashes remain in Glendale, California.

After all, cryonics starts with a principle that, at first glance, seems completely logical: as it happens with the food that we keep in the refrigerator, the cold and the low temperatures slow down the decomposition process, avoiding the proliferation of bacteria and slowing down the action of enzymes.

Photo: Unsplash

Although some species of insects, worms, and amphibians have the ability to remain in a been frozen for months and get on with your life once the low temperatures rise, when it comes to humans, the situation is radically opposite.

Our cells are unable to tolerate temperatures below -5 degrees Celsius and therefore, the first step in making human cryonics a tangible reality lies in finding cryoprotectants effective enough to prevent cell freezing and instead bring it to a state of vitrificationwhich would prevent the collapse and breakdown of cells:

According to David Denlinger, an entomologist at Ohio State University for Particle, One of the big problems with low temperatures is that the water in our cells can freeze and therefore break cells, so we have the option of add an agent that lowers the freezing point or some other way to prevent ice crystallization inside the cell.

Another obstacle to successfully freezing a person is finding the suitable temperature so that each organ and tissue can be preserved. The most realistic application of cryonics in the present is carried out with organs intended for transplants and cells such as ovules or sperm.

In this process, each organ requires a certain temperature to keep its functioning intact; however, trying to bring this to the entire human body complicates the scenario and involves a bigger problem: we dont know enough about the brain function to determine if it can maintain its functions after being frozen.

For now, applying cryonics in humans still belongs more to terrain of science fiction than reality. And although nanotechnology is advancing by leaps and bounds as a possible solution to temperature changes capable of avoiding damage in the process, the idea of bringing life back to a body that was kept at -190 degrees Celsius still requires scientific research. to be treated as a tangible reality.

Now read:

They revived a frozen tardigrade after 30 years

What is the remedy to frozen brain?

Originally posted here:

Cryonics: can death be avoided by freezing someone to revive in the future? - Explica

Related Posts

Comments are closed.