Andrew LingAl36859

Cryogenics

An almost science fiction approach to cheating death, cryogenics is the idea of cooling the human body after death in order to have the chance of revival in the far future. The idea of cryogenics first came from the book The Prospect of Immortality in 1964. In the 1970s a handful of companies formed to take advantage of this new fangled idea. However the costs of maintaining a body in a suspended state of animation were too high resulting in the bankruptcy and shutdown of many of these companies. Today there are only 2 major corporations still in the business, the Alcor Life Extension Foundation and the Cryonics institute. In this point paper, I will reveal the science behind cryogenics and the reasoning for its use.

Cryogenics is not freezing. The problem with freezing in general is that shatters cells. For this reason, whenever you freeze food and reheat it, the texture is different because after being brought to 0 degrees Celsius the ice crystals pierce the cells. Upon reheating, the shattered cells lose their strength and turgidity. Also cryogenics is not just used in attempts to cheat death, scientists study the effect of freezing temperatures on a variety of objects both dead and alive. Cryobiology studies the effects of low temperatures on living things. Some species such as the Wood Frog can actually have 45% of their body frozen and still survive once thawed. The Ice crystals that would normally pierce and shatter cells are stored under the skin in-between the frogs skeletal muscle. A part of hibernation, the frogs breathing, heart rate, and blood flow slow to a halt. The freezing doesnt damage the frog because of specialized proteins and glucose, which prevent intracellular damage and dehydration.

In humans, the process of cryogenics is simple. The idea is to keep the brain frozen in a state of suspended animation. After one is declared legally dead the first thing that is done is replacing all of the water in the cells with cryoprotectant, a glycerol-based chemical mixture. This prevents the forming of ice crystals in the organs and other vital parts of the body. After the water is replaced then the body is placed on dry ice to cool until -130 C. Now the body is ready to be placed into a vat of liquid nitrogen. The body is placed head down in order to extend the time the brain is frozen should a leak occur.

One of the problems of cryogenics and the reason why no one has ben successfully revived through it is that the warming process required to bring the body back to room temperature must be extremely precise. Warm too quickly and then the cooled body will form ice crystals thus destroying cells in the process rendering the cryogenics useless. Thus many bodies lay suspended in their frozen hibernation waiting for the precise technology in the future.

With everything being said however, cryogenics may not be ready for complete human revival but there are already many applications in use today. Cryogenics is used in preservation of organs for short periods of time during transplants. Blood and semen can be stored indefinitely in liquid nitrogen. Human sperm and eggs for fertility treatments also can be stored for large amounts of time. More research needs to be done in the thawing process before the idea of being frozen and brought back to life is feasible. In my eyes, there needs to be more testing done on the other animals who have passed away through old age. Scientists need to understand how to slowly thaw out an organism and hopefully be able to revitalize their body system. In order to do this, Id imagine there would need to be advances in warming technology. As of now, the idea of heat and using energy to successfully control heat is very lacking. In order for cryogenics to be possible it is required that the warming of the body is extremely control and precise down to the individual cell. The harsh reality is that this science, while new and exciting is reserved for the rich. There is no benefit in advancing technology in this direction just so some rich guy can come back alive and live again. Not when there are still problems of poverty and hunger dominating many countries. Before mankind can work on problems like these they must solve for the basics first.

Works Cited"Can A Human Be Frozen And Brought Back To Life?" Zidbits. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 May 2015. .From this source, I gained immense insight in the ethical aspects of cryogenics as well as the pros and cons of such an endeavor. It discussed the probability and the resources necessary for it to be even feasible in the best of conditions. As for the validity, I viewed this piece as an opinion piece as there wasnt any research behind it.

"Human Cryogenics Comes Closer to Reality with "Glassy Water"" The Daily Reckoning Australia. N.p., 01 Nov. 2007. Web. 03 May 2015. .This source revealed that in 2007, there was a breakthrough in technology. As a result there was revitalized interest in the subject. However again, this was a source reporting on a new phenomenon and not a study that discussed the possibility of cryogenics."Lithobates Sylvaticus (Wood Frog)." Animal Diversity Web. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 May 2015. .This source gave me the information about the wood frog. The wood frog is able to be frozen while hibernating and thus shows that it is possible. This was important because it showed that in the world there is an organism who is able to revive itself after being frozen avoiding the damage caused by freezing water.Pegg, D.e. "The Frozen Cell." Cryogenics 10.6 (1970): 536. Web.This was my scholarly source and it discussed the intracellular freezing and the effect it had on the cell. It also discussed the less harmful extracellular freezing. This is more valid of a source as it was published in a scientific journal. It gave me insight as to why freezing is harmful to living things in general.Watson, Stephanie. "How Cryonics Work." HowStuffWorks. HowStuffWorks.com, n.d. Web. 03 May 2015. .This source gave me a more detailed look into the corporate view of this science. It showed the necessity and the cost of certain resources and the possible dangers of this process. The validity of this article is the same as any non journal related article on science, however howstuffworks is a large corporations with a large audience and should they be incorrect the authors would receive outrage from many science professionals. For this reason I believe this resource more than others.