• Question: Are cryogenics ever possible? Are they currently being trialled at all?

    Asked by butters to Amy, Drew, Julia, Kimberley, Sara on 19 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Drew Rae

      Drew Rae answered on 17 Jun 2011:

      Hi butters. You ask some fun questions. Strictly speaking, cryogenics is just about producing very cold temperatures. It is certainly possible, and is used for food and for medical purposes such as storing blood. It’s also important for some physics experiments.

      I think what you are asking about is storing people and then waking them up again. Freezing a body causes a lot of damage, particularly to cell walls. That’s why meat is never quite as good after being defrosted. Very rapid freezing improves things, but not perfectly.

      I wouldn’t say it is never possible, but the risk of being snap frozen and stored for a hundred years is currently much higher than the risk of even an illness that is believed to be terminal. It’s certain death instead of near-certain death. You’re better off waiting for a miracle recovery or a cure to be invented before you die, and once you’ve got close to death you’re too sick for freezing not to kill you off the rest of the way.

    • Photo: Amy MacQueen

      Amy MacQueen answered on 18 Jun 2011:

      Hey butters – its not possible for adult humans at the moment (although human embryos are frozen during IVF). Really for efficient cryo-preservation you would want it done in the prime of life when you are healthy enough to be likely to survive it. But is anyone going to volunteer to try when they are ~20 and have their whole lives ahead of them? I think it unlikely!

      But as for cryogenics as a whole – yes it is possible and I use it routinely to store bacteria (which you can then wake up again very easily!!). For this I use liquid nitrogen which boils at −196 °C (−321 °F) …its pretty cold. Need to be careful with my fingers!! 🙂

    • Photo: Sara Imari Walker

      Sara Imari Walker answered on 19 Jun 2011:

      Hi butters! Its easiest to do cryogenics on single-cells. Amy’s brought up some great points about IVF and bacteria. Something as complex as an adult human being is much much tougher. We don’t have the technology yet. That’s not to say we won’t have it down the road, but it doesn’t look possible in the immediate foreseeable future. I definitely think it is possible though.

      I’ve heard a rumor that Walt Disney froze himself when he died with the hope technology could one day restore him. I wonder it that’s true …

    • Photo: Julia Griffen

      Julia Griffen answered on 19 Jun 2011:

      Hey butters, think the other guys have pretty much covered the answers so I’ll just add I think it may be possible, but the freezing damages the cells due to the fact that our body is mainly made up of water, and we know water expands on freezing (ice floats) so can ptentially burst the cells. So that’s why it’s cruitial that if this was possible to freeze somebody it should be done very quickly so the water doesn;t have time to expand and damage the cells. The defrosting would be cruital and have to be done very slowly I imagine… Obv I dont know all the fine details of such a procedure, unfortunalty this isn;t my hobby 🙂

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