Hypothermal Intention

Suspended animation or cryonics is a science that has in most peoples minds remained firmly in the realms of science fiction, apart that is from the work conducted by a few heavily mocked researchers based primarily in California. This state of affairs is probably due to some of the very entertaining and in some cases horrific science fiction novels and movies that have been produced. As a result of the often macabre portrayal of resurrected corpses committing murders and destroying souls, this potentially world changing set of technologies have been dubbed �pseudo science� and the scientists who work in the areas thought of as cranks.
This is strange when one considers the potential of cryonically suspending and successfully reviving a human being. Imagine a world where no disease could ever threaten an individual’s life, nor could the debilitating and eventually fatal results of aging. If your body became damaged beyond repair, then you would simply have your body suspended and at a later date, when a cure for your disease is found, you would then be revived and continue with your life.
Admittedly being reanimated would be very traumatic if several decades had passed between your suspension and your revival. The world would have changed and you would have not. I’m sure though, that humans being the adaptable creatures that they are, they would soon get used to their new world and begin once again to contribute towards it.
Regardless though of the obvious benefits of funding research into cryonics, only a few reputable scientists have become involved in this young discipline (see below).

Current research into Cryonics
The scientists Mark B. Roth and Todd Nystul recently released some interesting results regarding experiments that they conducted in order to induce states of suspended animation in a variety of organisms.

A large number of organisms possess the ability to slow or even halt their cellular metabolic processes in order to achieve a state of hibernation or even suspended animation during periods of extreme conditions. Nematodes, Ground squirrels, various frogs and even the Salamander can naturally enter these states. For example extreme low or high temperatures or oxygen deprivation (anoxia) can induce such states.

Reduced levels of oxygen supply specifically, can be a major cause of cellular and tissue damage in donor organs and in the bodies of individuals that have suffered severe blood loss or blood flow obstruction. In the later case from such causal agents as strokes or myocardial infarction. In cases such as these restoring an adequate blood supply is not always easily possible and the cells and tissues suffer damage due to this low oxygen or hypoxic environment. It has been found through experimentation however that if you reduce oxygen levels even further, to a point where the oxygen levels reach anoxic levels (levels were oxygen is nearly completely removed from the tissues). Then this results in many organisms entering a state of hibernation or suspended animation. Basically this is a state were metabolic processes are slowed down drastically.

An example of a simple organism that can be induced to enter this state is the nematode caenorhabditis elegans. This worm, when exposed to anoxic conditions will enter a state of suspended animation and will then continue its life cycle when oxygen levels return to a normal or normoxic level.

More complex animals, such as mice have been induced to enter such a state of suspended animation artificially, by exposing them to an atmosphere that is up to 80 parts per million of Hydrogen Sulphide or H2S. This molecule is an oxygen mimetic and competes with oxygen to bind with Cytochrome C, a respiratory enzyme that is important in regulating cellular metabolism. When the mice were exposed to such an environment there metabolism was found to slow down drastically, together with their body temperature and their rate of breaching slowed down from 120 to as low as 10 breaths per minute. The mice were left in this environment for six hours before a normal atmosphere was restored. When it was restored the mice were tested to see if any damage had resulted to them. All tests showed that the animals were unaffected by this extreme environment.

This shows that inducing hibernation in an advanced mammal is possible. If it works for a mouse, then it is likely to work for a human.

Another experiment that was conducted on a group of dogs found that if you induce cardiac arrest and then replace their blood supply with a saline solution that is low in oxygen, you are then able to perform surgery on these animals, replace normal blood and revive them with a minimal level of cellular damage. It seems that tissue damage resulting from natural processes during surgery occurs at a lower level during these states of suspended animation. This situation has been accidentally mimicked in humans. For example a Norwegian backcountry skier had an accident that resulted in her spending over an hour under ice cold water. When she was found she was clinically dead. It took several hours of resuscitation to bring her back, but she is now well.

This shows that suspended animation results in a slowing down or retardation of tissue damage in humans also.

All of these experiments and observations seem to imply that there is a potential to develop techniques that will eventually allow humans to be induced to enter a state of hibernation or suspended animation. These techniques could result in a much better prognosis for patients undergoing extreme surgery and may even result in people with untreatable diseases eventually being placed into states of suspended animation until suitable treatments become available!

For more on Suspended animation and on longevity research generally, visit http://www.whyweage.com

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본문 중간에 굵은 글씨로 체크해 놓은 부분이 재미있습니다. 생각해 보세요. 얼마든지 삶을 일시정지시켰다가 되살아날 수 있는 시대가 도래한다면, 부자들의 시간 관념은 우리와 상당히 달라질 겁니다. 수익이 예상되는 투자자산에 돈을 묻어뒀다가, 재산 관리인이나 가족들(살아 있는 것을 택하는)을 이용해 수익이 목표 지점에 다르면 깨어나서 부를 실현하면 되는 겁니다. 현대가 살기 싫으면 미래에 살겠다고, 한 70년 쯤 잠들 수도 있겠죠. 과연 이런 사람들에게 세상의 진보를 가져오고 싶은 욕구가 생겨날지, 또 다른 형태의 무임승차자는 아닐지 하는 사회학적 의문이 생겨날 수도 있겠군요. 이런 세상에서 냉동회사 등은 아마도 일종의 ‘미래로만 가는 원웨이 타임머신’ 티켓 창구 노릇을 할 것 같습니다.

London: Researchers are testing potentially life-saving techniques for keeping humans in a state of suspended animation while surgeons repair their wounds.

US doctors have developed a method of inducing hypothermia to shut down the body’s functions for up to three hours.

In tests, they reduced the body temperature of injured pigs from 37C to 10C before operating on them and then reviving them.

Now they are applying for permission to test the procedure on casualty patients without a pulse who have lost large amounts of blood, New Scientist magazine reported.

It is thought this method and others could one day be used on car crash and gunshot victims, as well as in the battlefield to treat wounded soldiers.

A surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Hasan Alam, has tested the technique about 200 times on pigs, with a 90 per cent success rate.

First he anaesthetises the animal, then cuts a major vein and artery in its abdomen to simulate multiple gunshots to a person’s chest and abdomen.
As the pig rapidly loses about half its blood and enters a state of shock, Dr Alam drains its blood and stores it before pumping chilled organ preservation fluid into its system.

The animal’s body temperature falls to about 10C until it is in a state of “profound hypothermia” and has no pulse and no electrical activity in its brain.

But after the blood stored earlier is warmed and pumped back into the pig’s body its heart starts beating again and it comes back to life.

“It is still pretty awe-inspiring,” Dr Alam said. “Once the heart starts beating and the blood starts pumping, voila, you’ve got another animal that’s come back from the other side.

“Technically, I think we can do it in humans.”

He now wants automatic consent to use the technique on all patients brought to his hospital who have lost blood and would probably die with only standard care.

Other US researchers are working on methods to place organisms in suspended animation by exposing them to a cocktail of gases, including hydrogen sulphide.

Press Association

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2006년 1월에 보도된 뉴스입니다. 2005년에 사파 연구소의 연구진이 죽은 개를 되살려낸 데 흥분해 관련 보도들이 쏟아지고 약간 후의 내용이죠. 매사추세츠 대학은 저체온요법 관련 기사를 검색하다보면 자주 등장하곤 합니다. 소생의학에 대한 이 대학의 권위 덕분일 겁니다.

아직 궁금한 것은 피를 빼내고 그 자리를 보존액으로 대체하는 과정이 어떻게 진행될까 하는 것입니다. 돼지 실험의 경우를 보면 정맥과 동맥을 각각 끊어놓던데, 피를 모두 빼낸 뒤 보존액을 넣는 것인지, 혈관을 끊어 한 쪽 절단면에서 피를 빼냄과 동시에 반대편 혈관으로 보존액을 넣는 것인지 잘 모르겠네요. 어떤 자료를 찾아보든지간에 이 부분은 ‘교환한다’, ‘체액을 빼내고 보존액을 넣는다’ 식으로 두루뭉수리하게 넘어갑니다. 갑갑하네요.