Can you really freeze your body and come back to life? On January 12, 1967, James Bedford passed away, but he had a bold plan to cheat death. Bedford became the first person to be cryogenically frozen, aiming to preserve his body until a future where any illness could be cured, essentially reversing death. This is the dream of cryonics. But here’s the challenge: to revive individuals in the future, we need to preserve them properly in the present.
The Science Behind Cryonics
So, is it possible to freeze a human, preserve them indefinitely, and then safely thaw them out? To answer this, we must look beyond the theoretical realm of cryonics and explore the scientific field of cryobiology. This discipline studies how low temperatures affect living systems. It’s important to note that lowering an organism’s temperature decreases its cellular function.
At temperatures below -130 degrees Celsius, human cellular activity essentially comes to a standstill. In theory, bringing an entire human body below this temperature could allow for indefinite preservation. However, the real challenge lies in doing this without damaging the body.
The Challenge of Freezing Cells
Let’s consider the process of freezing a single red blood cell. Under normal conditions, it exists at 37 degrees Celsius in a solution of water and chemical solutes. When the temperature drops below freezing, the water inside and outside the cell can form damaging ice crystals. This occurs because, as the water freezes, the solutes become increasingly concentrated, leading to a destructive process known as osmotic shock. Without intervention, these factors will likely destroy the red blood cell before it reaches -130 degrees.
Nature’s Solutions: Animals That Survive the Cold
Not all cells are this fragile. Some animals have evolved to survive extreme conditions. For example, cold-tolerant fish produce antifreeze proteins that prevent ice formation at sub-zero temperatures. Additionally, freeze-tolerant frogs can survive when up to 70% of their body water is trapped as ice. While it’s unlikely that any one creature holds the key to human cryopreservation, studying these adaptations has inspired scientists to develop remarkable preservation technologies. Some of these techniques are already used in medicine today.
Innovations in Cryopreservation
Researchers continue to improve cryopreservation technology to manage the ice problem effectively. One promising approach is called vitrification. This technique employs cryoprotectant agents (CPAs) to prevent ice formation. Some of these agents are derived from nature, while others are designed based on principles of cryobiology.
Vitrification allows researchers to store living systems in a glassy state, which reduces molecular activity and prevents harmful ice formation. This method is ideal for cryonics and could help preserve organs and tissues for medical use. However, achieving vitrification is incredibly challenging. CPAs can be toxic in high concentrations, making large-scale vitrification difficult.
The Complexity of Vitrification
Additionally, preventing ice formation requires rapid cooling to ensure uniform temperature reduction throughout the material. This process is easier with single cells or small tissue samples. However, as the material becomes more complex and contains larger volumes of water, it becomes much harder to keep ice formation at bay.
Even if we could successfully vitrify complex living materials, we’d only be halfway there. Vitrified tissues also need to be warmed uniformly to avoid ice formation and cracking. So far, researchers have successfully vitrified and partially recovered small structures, such as blood vessels, heart valves, and corneas. However, none of these are close to the size and complexity of a whole human being.
The Reality of Cryonics Today
If it’s not currently possible to cryopreserve a person, what does this mean for Bedford and others who are cryogenically frozen? Unfortunately, the sad truth is that current cryonic preservation techniques offer only false hope. As practiced, these methods are unscientific and can be deeply destructive, causing irreparable damage to cells, tissues, and organs.
Some supporters may argue that, like death and disease, this damage could be reversible one day. However, even if scientists could revive individuals through cryonic preservation, numerous ethical, legal, and social implications would raise doubts about the overall benefits of this technology.
For now, the dream of cryonics remains on ice, waiting for scientific breakthroughs that may one day make it a reality.
For further reading on cryonics and cryobiology, check out these resources: