Herbie Murray
Cryogenic sleep, also known as suspended animation, is a concept often seen in sci-fi movies, where a person is frozen and preserved for weeks, months, or even years, before being revived in the future. While it is not yet possible to cryopreserve a living human, cryonics, the practice of preserving a deceased person at extremely low temperatures (below −100 °C), has been performed on over 250 bodies since 1967, with the hope that future technology will be able to revive them.
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What You'll Learn
Cryogenic sleep chambers
The concept of cryosleep is based on the idea of lowering a person's temperature to induce a state of biostasis, in which their metabolic rate, heart rate, and body temperature are reduced, and they can survive for extended periods with minimal food and water. This is similar to the natural hibernation observed in some animals, such as bears and squirrels.
However, there are several challenges to overcoming to make cryosleep a reality. One of the main obstacles is that freezing a human body would also freeze the water inside cells, causing the ice to expand and rupture the cell membranes, resulting in extensive cellular damage. Additionally, there is limited research on the long-term preservation of human bodies, and the potential impact on organs and cells over extended periods of cryosleep is not well understood.
Despite these challenges, some commercial ventures offer cryogenic preservation of deceased individuals, with the hope that future advancements in science and technology will enable revival. Cryonics, the practice of preserving humans at extremely low temperatures (below −100 °C), is based on the idea that very low temperatures can preserve tissue and even the neurological basis of the human mind for extended periods. Cryonics proponents argue that as long as the brain structure remains intact, there is no fundamental barrier to recovering its information content and that memory and personality can be retained even in an inactive, damaged brain.
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Cryonics and cryopreservation
Cryonics organizations use vitrification to preserve brains and other organs. Vitrification is a process where cooling and solidification occur without crystal formation. In the late 1990s, cryobiologists developed the first cryoprotectant solutions that could vitrify at very slow cooling rates while still allowing whole organ survival, for the purpose of banking transplantable organs. A study conducted on rat hippocampal slices showed that it is possible for vitrified slices cooled to a solid state at −130°C to have viability upon re-warming. Additionally, a rabbit kidney that was vitrified, cooled to −135°C, re-warmed, and transplanted into a live rabbit functioned well enough to keep the rabbit alive indefinitely.
As of 2014, about 250 corpses have been cryogenically preserved in the U.S., and around 1,500 people have signed up to have their remains preserved. There are four facilities that retain cryopreserved bodies, three in the U.S. and one in Russia. Cryonics companies have a very low probability of lasting 100 years, which is necessary for the supposed benefits of cryonics to be realized. As of 2018, all but one of the pre-1973 batch of cryonics companies had gone out of business, and their stored corpses have been defrosted and disposed of.
While cryonics may seem like a promising idea, there are several challenges and ethical considerations to consider. One major challenge is the formation of ice crystals during freezing, which can disrupt connections between cells and damage organs. Additionally, the expansion of frozen water can burst and rip apart cell membranes. There is also the question of whether cryopreservation can truly preserve the structure and function of organs and tissues, especially the brain. Cryonics also raises ethical concerns, such as the potential for abuse or the impact on society if people are given the chance to live indefinitely.
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Revival of the cryopreserved
Cryonics is a process that involves freezing human remains at extremely low temperatures, usually below −130 °C, with the hope of future resurrection and restoration to a healthy living condition. This process is often referred to as "cryogenic sleep" or "suspended animation" in popular media. While it has been depicted in science fiction movies and shows, the mainstream scientific community regards cryonics with skepticism and considers it a pseudoscience.
The primary challenge with cryopreservation is preventing the formation of ice crystals, which can damage the brain and other organs. Techniques such as using cryoprotectants and vitrification are employed to mitigate this issue. Cryoprotectants are substances that prevent ice formation during the freezing process, while vitrification cools the tissue to cryogenic temperatures without ice formation, thereby reducing damage.
Despite these techniques, reviving the cryopreserved remains a complex task. The process of freezing and thawing can cause cell lysis, or the bursting of cell membranes, due to the expansion of water as it freezes. Additionally, there are other detrimental effects on organs and cells during long-term preservation, even at low temperatures.
While we have been able to freeze and revive individual cells, reviving a whole human organism is far more complex and has not yet been achieved. Furthermore, the revival of cryopreserved individuals would require advancements in medical technology to address the issues that led to their death in the first place.
Nevertheless, there are ongoing efforts to improve cryogenic technology, and it remains a subject of interest for future space exploration and distant planet colonization.
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Cryogenic freezing temperatures
Cryogenic freezing involves storing human remains at extremely low temperatures, usually at −196 °C (−320.8 °F or 77.1 K). This process is known as cryopreservation and aims to preserve biological material, including the brain, in the hope that future advancements in science and technology will be able to revive and restore the individual to a healthy living condition. Cryopreservation can be achieved by freezing the body with or without cryoprotectants, which are substances that prevent the formation of ice during the process, thereby reducing potential damage to the cells and organs.
The idea of cryogenic sleep, also known as suspended animation, has been popularised by science fiction movies and is often associated with space travel. In this context, cryogenic freezing would involve inducing a state of hibernation or "cold sleep" in an individual, mimicking the natural hibernation observed in some animals during winter. While the terms cryogenic sleep and suspended animation are used interchangeably in popular media, they technically refer to different levels of temperature reduction. Cryogenic sleep implies very low temperatures, while suspended animation typically involves a less extreme reduction of a few degrees.
The primary challenge with cryogenic freezing is the formation of ice crystals within the body's cells, which can rupture the cell membranes and cause irreversible damage to organs. This phenomenon, known as cell lysis, occurs because water expands as it freezes, and this expansion can tear apart the delicate cellular structures. Additionally, there are other detrimental effects on organs and cells when they remain inactive for extended periods, even at low temperatures.
To overcome the issue of ice crystal formation, researchers are exploring techniques such as vitrification, which involves cooling biological material to cryogenic temperatures without the formation of ice. Vitrification, however, has been associated with brain damage, particularly affecting the neural circuits, making it incompatible with the goal of reviving individuals from cryopreservation. While cryoprotectants can help prevent ice formation, they do not entirely eliminate the risk of damage during the freezing and thawing processes.
Despite the challenges, advancements are being made in cryogenic technology, such as the successful cryopreservation of woman egg cells and the potential for achieving the same with organs in the near future. These developments hold promise for the possibility of cryogenic freezing for human exploration and space travel, enabling journeys to distant planets and galaxies.
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Cryogenic sleep for space travel
Cryogenic sleep, also known as suspended animation, is a concept that has long been championed by science fiction as a solution to the problem of long-distance space travel. In films such as Interstellar, Avatar, and Passengers, characters put themselves into a hibernation-like sleep for the duration of their travel time.
In reality, cryogenic sleep is nowhere near this simple. However, scientists and engineers are collaborating with NASA and other space agencies to develop suspended animation projects for missions to Mars and beyond. Cryosleep could allow astronauts to be knocked out for weeks or months in a state called torpor, which resembles hibernation. During torpor, bodily functions slow down, and metabolism is reduced. This would mean that less food and water would be required, and a ship could be more compact and sparsely equipped, making it less expensive to propel through space.
Cryosleep could also help to protect astronauts from harmful cosmic radiation. On Earth, the atmosphere and magnetic shield protect us from this radiation, but in space, astronauts are exposed. Cryosleep chambers could have an artificial Earth-like gravitational force that would keep astronauts' bodies in shape, preventing muscle atrophy and bone degeneration.
While there are many potential benefits to cryosleep, there are also challenges to be addressed. Awakening from torpor must be done slowly, as the body warms and different organs begin to demand energy. If the body does not warm at the correct rate, there is a risk of heart attack or stroke. There may also be side effects such as erratic heartbeat, infections, or blood clots, and the effects of lowered metabolism on the body's ability to repair itself from radiation damage are not yet fully understood.
Despite these challenges, cryogenic sleep remains an exciting prospect for the future of space travel, and research is underway to make it a reality.
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Frequently asked questions
Cryogenic sleep, also known as suspended animation, is a process of lowering the body temperature to very low temperatures to preserve human remains in the hope that they can be revived in the future.
Cryogenic sleep works by freezing the body to extremely low temperatures, usually below −130 °C. This process, called cryopreservation, can be done with or without cryoprotectants to prevent ice damage or by vitrification to avoid it altogether.
One of the main challenges of cryogenic sleep is that freezing a body also freezes the water inside the cells, causing the ice to expand and burst the cell membranes. Another challenge is that there is currently no way to reanimate a corpse that has been vitrified as this damages the brain and its neural circuits.
Cryogenic sleep has the potential to allow humans to explore distant planets and travel to other galaxies. It could also be used for medical purposes, such as preserving organs for transplantation or storing human remains until future science can restore them to a healthy condition.
