Freezing rights: technology, equipment. Experiments on freezing people

Each of us at least once watched a fantastic film or read fantastic literature, where in one form or another a person is frozen, followed, of course, by his animation. How else? After all, today, mankind has the technology and resources to fly to the nearest neighbor - a star, a Centaurus proximity located 4.25 light years from Earth - in no less than 200 years. Other stellar systems are located even further. And how can you do without artificial sleep, frost?

Of course, it is possible to supply the ship with everything necessary for a change of generations, to organize a school there, to raise up young offspring, etc., etc., to arrange greenhouses for cultivation of crops, farms for growing domestic animals ... But in this case the dimensions of the ship will be such , That no resources of the Earth are not enough to prepare an expedition with an unknown, by the way, result.

As far as in this regard, the option with freezing is more convenient. The ship flew out, gained cruising speed, the crew fell into special chairs, the lids closed, cryogenic equipment buzzed, and forward to the dream. And when you fly to the goal of the journey, people, respectively, come to life and jumped up cheerful and joyful of their cryocapsules. And let's study the planets of the red dwarf proxim of Centauri, populate them and multiply! ..

Why the possibility of freezing is so interesting

Of course, the possibility of accomplishing interstellar expeditions inspires, but the frost is interesting to man for a number of reasons. I would like to go not only to Aldebaran or distant star Altair - with the help of such technology it would be possible to make a journey into the distant future.

After all, cryonics is nothing more than the possibility of an indefinite preservation of the human body in a pristine, original state, a body protected from decomposition processes. Remember the wonderful film of Pole Julius Makhulsky "The New Amazons." It would be damn interesting to freeze years like that for a thousand and unfreeze when the earthlings at full speed master the satellites of Jupiter and Saturn, build colonies on Pluto, and so on the moon so in general - on vacation fly.

But first of all, of course, we are interested in freezing people to prolong life. Unfortunately, there are many diseases on the Earth, which are not yet being treated. But, analyzing the history, hopelessly sick people have the right to expect that in 100 or 200 years the means of treatment of their fatal ailments will be opened. Do not forget about the eternal desire of the powerful to prevail over his last rival - the very death. Who knows, suddenly in the future people will have the opportunity to extend their lives as long as they please.

Science of cryonics

The very word "cryonics" is derived from Hellenic "cryos", which means "frost", "cold". It must be said that this section of low-temperature physics deals not only with the development of the theoretical possibility to send a person to a distant journey or an equally distant future. He has more practical applications. So, cryogenic equipment helps to store unlimited time the seeds of various plants, as well as the seed of animals and people.

It is known that at a temperature of -120 ° C and below all known biological media remain unchanged for unlimited time.

Thus, it is possible to store the seed material of endangered plants, it is possible to create a bank of sperm and eggs of rare species of animals and at least in this way try to protect some of them from complete disappearance.

Where is the cold taken

The operation of the equipment for obtaining temperatures sufficiently low for long-term storage of the material is based on the known physical phenomenon - cooling of the surface upon evaporation of liquid from it. As a working fluid (this is the same liquid that evaporates), liquid nitrogen is used most often.

Recently, cryonics is not the destiny of large research centers of rich countries, it is commonplace, and nitrogen is the most common gas on the planet, and its characteristics are suitable: liquefied nitrogen evaporates at -196 ° С.

Is it easy to freeze a person

If the question is formulated in this way, then the answer is: yes, it is easy. If you ask: can a person be revived after defrosting, then, alas, the answer is not happy. There are no successful examples in the world yet.

The fact is that when a person freezes, the cells of his body are severely damaged. To see firsthand how this happens, you can conduct a simple experiment. In a glass bottle, pour water and leave it in the cold (you can put it in the freezer). When the water in the tank crystallizes, the glass walls of the vessel burst, as water, crystallizing, increases in volume. But the human body consists of 80% water.

Therefore, all the experiments on freezing people have so far failed. After defrosting, all cell membranes, capillaries, are completely damaged. There is also the opinion that when freezing-defrosting, all the data from the brain is erased, and not only the memories of a happily conducted summer, but all the information: who I am, how to breathe, how to fight my heart, how to work my ears, eyes, etc. This As a computer without software.

Why people go on freezing

The answer is simple: the hope of a miracle. The person hopes that by the time he learns to treat any diseases, as long as he likes to prolong his life, he will certainly be able to unfreeze the body, returning it to life.

Another category that wants to freeze its body is the rich people of the planet who have achieved everything in this life: money, fame, power, unlimited influence ... And suddenly they face a cruel fact: they will have to go out of life just like everyone else. They decide to freeze in the hope that once they wake up, they will find themselves in a world where they will live forever, well, or at least much longer than now.

Freezing technology

To reduce damage to cellular tissues by water crystals, human freezing is carried out as follows: before cooling, a special solution is introduced into the blood vessels, which reduces the expansion of water during crystallization. In some laboratories, the blood is completely replaced by such a solution. After this, the body is gradually cooled to -196 ° C.

But there are other technologies - freezing a person for a while. For example, in the United States already know how to introduce a person into a state of clinical death and, after cooling the body to 0 ° C, transport it to a specialized medical institution.

Legal Aspects

But it must be remembered that freezing a person is not only a technical problem, but also a legal one. After all, you will agree, there is little use for freezing a dead body that has begun to decompose. It is unlikely that even in the distant future there will be technologies that can revive such "patients".

On the other hand, subjecting the procedure for replacing blood with a special solution followed by deep freezing of a living person is unlikely to allow legislation. So how do people freeze for revitalization?

And it happens in the so-called "gray" zone, in fact, between life and death. In the same period, excision of organs for transplantation takes place in patients. The condition is characterized by the death of the brain, but by the functioning internal organs and the absence of decay processes.

How to recover

Scientists hope that the first patient will be revitalized around 2055, and the defrosting of people will be on the conveyor belt by the end of the 21st century. How are physicians going to overcome problems?

So far, the greatest expectations are placed on nanorobots. And the scenario of this animation will look something like this:

- the human body is gradually heated to a temperature of 0 ° C;

- the necessary amount of donor blood is injected into the vessels, which, under the action of a special device, during the period of revitalization replacing the heart and lungs, is saturated with oxygen and circulates through the body;

- a huge amount (up to a million or more) of tiny intelligent robots is introduced into the body, which, moving through all tissues and organs, independently assess damage and eliminate them, controlled from a special center;

- After the restoration is completed, the heart is started.

And we have?

Did not pass the fashion for "eternal" life in liquid nitrogen and us. The freezing of people in Russia acquired the scale of the flow about 20 years ago. But if in the United States today about 500 people are frozen (the information is most likely incomplete - not all frost facts are publicized), in Russia this figure is an order of magnitude more modest.

In the RF, the contract for freezing is signed mostly by people dying of cancer, hoping that in the future they will be revitalized and cured.

Currently, cryonized bodies are in special containers, but in the future they plan to store them in large special rooms, where even relatives can go, of course, in special suits.

I must say that the freezing of people in Russia is gaining popularity among foreign customers. It's all about the price. So, in the US, to freeze the human body completely (some customers ask to freeze only their heads for the sake of economy) costs about half a million dollars, while Russians are ready to render such a service almost ten times cheaper.