ILLUSTRATES: sattu
1. Cryogenics is the freezing of corpses at low temperatures so that they will be resurrected one day. When the patient is declared dead, doctors try to prevent the body from deteriorating: drugs are injected and machines maintain blood circulation and oxygenation. The body is wrapped in a special thermal blanket, which helps to keep it cool, and transported to the clinic at low temperatures, which make the brain require less oxygen and keep tissues alive longer.
two. In the clinic, the patient’s blood is withdrawn at the same time that, through another tube, the cryoprotective liquid, a chemical substance based on glycerin, is inserted. The liquid replaces other intracellular compounds, preventing ice crystals from forming inside the cells. If the person’s skin is fair, you can see the fluid-filled tissues start to turn orange.
3. After injecting the substances, the body goes to a cabin with circulating nitrogen gas. There, it is allowed to cool down for about three hours to ensure that all parts of the body are evenly frozen. At the end of the process, the patient will be completely vitrified
The. A cell in normal state is composed of several water molecules
B. In frozen cells, water molecules clump together, forming ice crystals – which squeeze and damage cells
w. In vitrification, the water moves slower and slower, until it stops. It’s called suspended animation state
4. The body is then placed in a protective plastic bag and immersed in a cylinder of liquid nitrogen, where it is monitored. At this stage, there is a risk of fractures in the body, a problem that can occur in large areas subjected to vitrification – the cryogenic liquid itself can harden and break inside the organism!
5. Finally, to save space, the body is placed in a liquid nitrogen tube with three more bodies and two heads – for a much cheaper price it is possible to freeze only the head. The body remains there and can be visited by the family until science finds a way to recover it. Or not…
Life after death
Understand why no frozen corpse was reanimated
• The only thawing that happens is that of embryos – but that only works because they are not complex cells, unlike a body full of tissues and systems;
• Lack of oxygen during the first few minutes of death can cause irreparable tissue damage, which will continue to be damaged even when frozen. For some scientists, in the future, with the aid of nanotechnology, these tissues may be reconstructed;
• The cryopreservative liquid inside the living organism would be toxic and it is still not known how to replace it. Technologies are being studied to be able to eliminate these toxic proteins;
• Even thawing the body would have to reverse the process that caused death – an advanced disease, for example. For this, science needs to invent the cure for such diseases.
Read too:
– Why is snow white if ice is transparent?
– Why does ice stick to your hands?
– What are fjords?