(Daily Star) – The concept of cryonics has allowed a select few people to be able to attempt to “live forever” by preserving their body in hopes of being woken up some time in the future.
Cryonics is the process of storing a body or parts of a body in low temperatures – but it’s not completely new. Since 2000BC ice houses have been used to store foods, and in the seventeenth century, philosopher Robert Boyle experimented with freezing live animals in a vacuum.
He successfully discovered it was possible to freeze their bodies in an airless space, according to blog Christ Treasures. But more recently science has sought to challenge death with some hoping to bring eternal life to humans. Cryopreservation preserves cells, tissues, organs or any biological constructs by cooling to very low temperatures, such as -196C.
The process relies on the belief that sometime in the future, which could be 1,000 years, science will have advanced far enough to “wake up” cryopreserved bodies. Those who have decided to take part in the “freezing” process have done so without risk, the logic being that if they’ve died anyway there can’t be any harm.
Speaking to Daily Star, Professor Joao Pedro de Magalhaes, who coordinates the UK Cryonics and Cryopreservation Research Network, said: “If we can successfully revive someone cryopreserved even thousands of years from now that would still be a success.” READ MORE
