What Does a Cryobiologist Do?

Cryonics is an emerging science that focuses on the effects of body temperature on longevity. Experiments to lower body temperature have yielded good results. If a person's temperature is lowered by two degrees, a person can live 120 to 150 years longer. If so, humans can live to 700 or even 800 years. However, the experiment has just begun, so it is too early to declare to the world that "we have conquered death."

Cryonics

Scientists often talk about cryonics technology , envisioning freezing the human body and waking him up sometime in the future. This idea has been widely adopted by science fiction, but it has the potential to become a reality. Cryonics can be considered

The life world basically belongs to a chemical world, and the speed of chemical reactions always slows down as the temperature decreases, and eventually stops. The common food spoilage caused by microorganisms is a typical chemical reaction, and such chemical reactions can be delayed by low temperature. It has long been known to store ice in winter for long-term preservation of food in summer, and the invention of the refrigerator has spread to the general public a life that only nobles could enjoy. Therefore, in theory, the process of life should also gradually slow down and finally freeze as the temperature drops, and then resume again as the temperature rises.

Indeed, some organisms have been observed in nature to have amazing resistance to freezing, and they can remain in a "suspended" state waiting for the temperature to rise. After the pear tree was dormant for a winter at -20 ° C to -33 ° C, and the apple tree was at a low temperature of -46 ° C, it could still bloom in spring. In some temperate waters, the temperature at night in winter can drop to -20 ~ -30 ° C. The molluscs such as mussels and oysters on the beach can be transformed into ice sculptures.

From basic physical and chemical laws, it can be deduced that long-term storage of animal cells usually requires -120 ° C, of course, -196 ° C is better. At this temperature, all chemical processes are almost completely stagnated, unless the storage time is less than

There are two ways to transform a liquid into a solid. One is through a phase change, which is discontinuously solidified in a crystalline manner, while the glassy solidification process does not undergo a phase change, and the liquid is continuously solidified. The result is a solid in the glassy state, which still has fluidity, which means that you can think of glass at room temperature as a peculiar liquid, but its viscosity is much higher than ordinary liquids. If you want to observe it, The flow phenomenon needs to wait for a century. If the water is in

Human freezing means that after a person dies, the corpse is quickly frozen in an appropriate manner, and there is hope that it will be "resurrected" at some point in the future. This idea first appeared in the science fiction novel "Strange Stories" published by science fiction writer Neil Jones in 1931.

A few days ago, three philosophy professors at the University of Oxford chose to freeze the human body "after death." Does freezing human body really make people resurrect in the future? Scientists say that human freezing is currently only a commercial practice, and there is no evidence that the frozen human body can "resurrect" in the future.

Oxford philosopher chooses to freeze the human body

The three philosophers who plan to accept human crying are the 40-year-old professor of philosophy, director of the "Human Future Institute" in Oxford, 41-year-old researcher Sandberg, and Armstrong. Armstrong ordered a body freeze. Postron and Sandberg have booked a cheaper service: only the head is refrigerated.

Because there is no cryopreservation research at the "Human Future Institute" in Oxford, Postron and Sandberg submitted to the "Alco Life Continuity Foundation" in Arizona, and Armstrong to another "human cryopreservation" in Michigan, USA Agency "appointment.

These two institutions are the largest cryonics companies in the world today. The cryopreservation team is reportedly on standby when they are dying in the future. Once they were declared dead, staff set about cooling the remains, while using machines to keep blood flowing inside them, injecting antiseptics and antifreeze to protect the body's tissues. If only cryopreserved skulls were selected, workers would cut their heads and store them in liquid nitrogen at minus 196 degrees.

Postron has a background in physics and neuroscience. He was also selected as one of the top 100 thinkers in the United States by Foreign Policy magazine in 2009. His choice may affect the public's judgment on cryogenic technology. "Look at what has happened in the past 100 years. In today's world, how much is something that humans could not imagine in 1913." Postron said in an interview with the media. "The more uncertain the future, the more you choose to survive. It makes sense that you can save as much information in your brain as possible, instead of simply discarding them. "

Human freezing costs a lot of money in favor of the rich

The so-called cryonics refers to the fact that if a corpse is frozen in an appropriate manner immediately after death, it may be resurrected at some point in the future. Human freezing technology is listed by the American Journal of Life Science as one of the top ten unsolved mysteries of the human brain and the top ten future science and technology beyond human limits.

There is a high price to pay for cryonics. As a result, this technology is now almost a gamble for the rich. It is reported that the charges for human freezing are USD 10,000 (brain nerve refrigeration project of Russia's KrioRus company), USD 28,000 (whole body refrigeration project of the human freezing institution), USD 155,000 (systemic freezing of the American Society of Human Cryonics), and 200,000 USD (Alco Life Extension Fund's Whole Body Refrigeration Project), the fee depends on different companies, services, countries or regions.

Refrigerators can consider paying in the form of life insurance or instalments. Armstrong chose the form of life insurance, insured 25 pounds per month as the funds needed to freeze after death.

The Alcor Life Extension Foundation has frozen 117 bodies, including Ted Williams, one of the greatest baseball players in the United States. Among others who are still alive but have chosen Alco, there are also celebrities, such as American director Charles Matthew.

However, some people worry that after hundreds of years, these companies that provide refrigeration services will still exist.

"Resurrection" lack of evidence is still a commercial activity

Paul Siegel, a cryobiologist at the University of California, Berkeley, had frozen living hamsters for two hours and revived. After the hamster test was successful, Siegel tested another beagle. As a result, he succeeded in bringing the Beagle back to life.

Some experts said that although freezing experiments have made some progress in some animals, this method is not necessarily applicable to humans. Although there are currently many companies engaged in "human freezing", few medical institutions are involved. According to experts, cryonics is just a new business opportunity, not medicine.

John Bowst, former president of the International Society of Cryobiology and director of the Cryogenic Biology Research Center at the State University of New York in the United States, said in an interview with the reporter of the Chinese Science News that most members of human cryogenic tissue have not received formal higher education or Professionally qualified doctor. None of the reports on the resurrection of the human body was from a scientific journal, and none of the reports proved to be true.

Hua Zezhao, director of the Institute of Cryogenic Medicine at the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, stated clearly that "technically, it is very difficult or impossible to achieve cryogenic freezing of the human body." Most cells and some tissues can be stored at low temperatures, but organs such as the heart cannot be stored at low temperatures. There are different types of cells in each organ, and freezing one organ is difficult to succeed. ^[1]

Can improving the material structure of cells achieve safe freezing?

Solomon Kovaya, who studies cell structure, claims that the flexibility of cells and the number of primitive gluons are the key factors that determine their freeze resistance and evolutionary limits. He is working on a "find the source of energy" project, aiming at how to turn on the cells after freezing, how to give vitality to life, and to do everything possible to the extent that life allows.

Some scientists who have worked in the Soviet Society for Cryobiological Research have scoffed at the idea that the dead body and head of the dead can be "resurrected" in the future, and accused the act of "frauding the dead".

At about 5 pm on May 30, 2015, Du Hong, a 61-year-old patient with pancreatic cancer, was lying on the bed and had entered the retention stage.

In the next room, two surgeons from the United States have been waiting for eight hours. In fact, they have been on standby for this moment since May 19.

At 5:40 pm, Du Hong passed away peacefully. Two American doctors injected Du Hong's body with anticoagulants, antibacterial drugs, and antithrombotic drugs to prevent blood clotting, and pressed the heart with special equipment to ensure blood circulation.

Subsequently, Du Hong's body was placed in a wooden coffin filled with ice cubes and quickly transferred to the surgical site, which took about 1 hour. The next step is perfusion. Because human cells contain a large amount of water, the water freezes to form ice crystals during freezing, which can easily puncture the cells and cause great damage. Therefore, the key point of freezing technology is to use a protective solution with a lower freezing point and less crystallization Moisture to achieve the effect of dehydration.

American doctors first replaced the remaining blood in the body with the diluted protective solution. Subsequently, the instrument opened the common arteries and veins of the neck of the corpse to form a liquid input circuit, input the protective fluid, and then started the highlight-replacing the remaining blood on the head.

The replacement process is relatively long, and the doctor will gradually increase the concentration of protective solution and inject it from the arteries into the head. When the concentration of the protective fluid in the human body reaches the requirements for preservation of the remains, continue to monitor the concentration of the protective fluid in the intravenous output fluid. When the protective fluid concentration of the output fluid is consistent with the input concentration, it means that the head moisture has been completely replaced.

The perfusion is more than 4 hours, and the whole process needs to be completed under freezing low temperature close to 0 degrees Celsius. After that, the body needs to be cooled further. The staff gradually cooled the body with dry ice at -60 , and finally stored the body in an ice coffin around -40 . At this point, the preliminary process of freezing the remains has been completed.

Next, Du Hong's body will be sent to Alcor's headquarters in Los Angeles (one of the world's largest frozen human research institutions) in a frozen state. The body's head will be separated and stored in a special container of liquid nitrogen environment at -196 .

In the long years thereafter, the staff will add liquid nitrogen on schedule to ensure that Du Hong's head is kept for a long time. According to the optimistic estimates of Alcor scientists, science and technology in 50 years may enable Du Hong to thaw his head and rebuild his body, that is, to resurrect. ^[3]