Cryogenics is the practice of quickly and deeply freezing recently deceased people (or even individual organs, such as the brain) in the hope of resurrecting them one day when technology becomes much more advanced. Cryogenics is a serious scientific research issue right now. Of course, since on a practical level this area is relatively new, some share of pseudoscience, myths and rumors is also present in it. However, China recently carried out the country's first freezing of a person.
The husband of 49-year-old Qian Wen Lian, who died of lung cancer, volunteered for this procedure. Both spouses agreed that after her death her body would be donated for scientific research. In an interview with the Mirror, he said that they initially decided to choose cryogenics, as they see it as a "life-saving project."
As part of this procedure, Yinfeng Biological Group, based in Jinan City, placed Wen Lian's body in a container with 2,000 liters of liquid hydrogen. The project itself is international. Several Chinese, as well as one American company took part in it.
Deceased Qian's body is kept in one of these cryogenic chambers.
Even though so much faith is now being invested in this technology, the following question remains: how is all this possible scientifically? Is this just an experiment aimed at a broader understanding of our biology, or will cryogenics really become an affordable choice one day?
Scientists say time is a critical aspect in cryogenics. The bodies of the deceased undergo a cryogenic freezing procedure almost immediately after a person's heart stops beating. But "freezing" in this case is not the most appropriate term, since the cryogenic procedure is actually aimed at avoiding the formation of ice crystals, which can damage the cells and tissues of the body. Therefore, "very fast cooling" is a more appropriate and accurate description for this process.
To preserve the body from decomposition during the cryogenic process, a chemical solution of "preservatives" of glycerin and propanediol is used. They are also used to protect the body from damage as a result of very long exposure to extremely low temperatures. After that, special attention is paid to the bodies, because the most important postulate of cryogenics says: death is a continuous process that can one day be stopped. The key goal of the technology will one day have to be the ability to resuscitate bodies at the cellular level, and mostly without any special epigenetic changes.
“I am generally inclined to believe in new and developing technologies, so I believe that in the future we will have the opportunity to resurrect her,” the husband of the deceased commented.
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With our current level of understanding and technology, the process of bringing a deceased person back to life is simply impossible. Perhaps the only example of such a possibility is the moments of clinical death, when a patient is literally returned from the other world using various methods such as cardiac defibrillation.
Cryogenics, in turn, certainly looks closer to science fiction or the same alchemy, where death is viewed more as an unfinished process than the final event of life. But just because we have not yet succeeded in raising the dead does not mean at all that the field of cryogenics is a completely meaningless form of scientific research and practice. The same case in China is a step forward for everyone to explore this direction, and maybe one day we can really achieve outstanding results.
Maybe now we are not able to defeat death, but this does not prevent us from dreaming that one day scientific progress and further development of technology will not give us such an opportunity. This is unlikely to happen within our generation, but without research there will be no progress.
Nikolay Khizhnyak