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How Cryonics Works

by Stephanie Watson
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Please copy/paste the following text to properly cite this HowStuffWorks article:
Watson, Stephanie. "How Cryonics Works." 05 January 2005. HowStuffWorks.com.

<http://science.howstuffworks.com/genetic-science/cryonics.htm> 12 March 2010.
Inside this Article
1. Introduction to How Cryonics Works
2. What is Cryonics?
3. How is Cryonics Performed?
4. Has Anyone Been Preserved Using Cryonics?
5. The History of Cryonics
6. Lots More Information
7. See more »
7. See all Genetic Science articles
Science Videos
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What is Cryonics?
Cryonics is the practice of preserving human bodies in extremely cold temperatures with the
hope of reviving them sometime in the future. The idea is that, if someone has "died" from a
disease that is incurable today, he or she can be "frozen" and then revived in the future when a
cure has been discovered. A person preserved this way is said to be in cryonic suspension.
Photo courtesy Alcor Life Extension Foundation

In an operating room at Alcor Life Extension Foundation, a
cryonics patient is cooled in a vat of dry ice as part of the
"freezing" procedure.
To understand the technology behind cryonics, think about the news stories you've heard of
people who have fallen into an icy lake and have been submerged for up to an hour in the frigid
water before being rescued. The ones who survived did so because the icy water put their body
into a sort of suspended animation, slowing down their metabolism and brain function to the
point where they needed almost no oxygen.
Cryonics is a bit different from being resuscitated after falling into an icy lake, though. First of
all, it's illegal to perform cryonic suspension on someone who is still alive. People who undergo
this procedure must first be pronounced legally dead -- that is, their heart must have stopped
beating. But if they're dead, how can they ever be revived? According to scientists who perform
cryonics, "legally dead" is not the same as "totally dead." Total death, they say, is the point at
which all brain function ceases. Legal death occurs when the heart has stopped beating, but some
cellular brain function remains. Cryonics preserves the little cell function that remains so that,
theoretically, the person can be resuscitated in the future.
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How Cryonics Works

by Stephanie Watson
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Science Videos
How is Cryonics Performed?

If you decide to have yourself placed in cryonic suspension, what happens to you? Well, first,
you have to join a cryonics facility and pay an annual membership fee (in the area of $400 a
year). Then, when your heart stops beating and you are pronounced "legally dead," an emergency
response team from the facility springs into action. The team stabilizes your body, supplying
your brain with enough oxygen and blood to preserve minimal function until you can be
transported to the suspension facility. Your body is packed in ice and injected with heparin (an
anticoagulant) to prevent your blood from clotting during the trip. A medical team awaits the
arrival of your body at the cryonics facility.

Operating room at Alcor Life Extension Foundation
Once you are transported to the cryonics facility, the actual "freezing" begins. Cryonics facilities
can't simply put their patients into a vat of liquid nitrogen, because the water inside their cells
would freeze. When water freezes, it expands -- this would cause the cells to simply shatter. The
cryonics team must first remove the water from your cells and replace it with a glycerol-based
chemical mixture called a cryoprotectant -- a sort of human antifreeze. The goal is to protect the
organs and tissues from forming ice crystals at extremely low temperatures. This process, called
vitrification (deep cooling without freezing), puts the cells into a state of suspended animation.

A surgeon at Alcor performs initial procedures to gain access to a
patient's vascular system, preparing for the vitrification process.
A computer displays parameters such as temperature, flow
rate and pressure during the four-hour vitrification procedure.
Once the water in your body is replaced with the cryoprotectant, your body is cooled on a bed of
dry ice until it reaches -130 C (-202 F), completing the vitrification process. The next step is to
insert your body into an individual container that is then placed into a large metal tank filled with
liquid nitrogen at a temperature of around -196 degrees Celsius (-320 degrees Fahrenheit). Your
body is stored head down, so if there were ever a leak in the tank, your brain would stay
immersed in the freezing liquid.
Cryonics isn't cheap -- it can cost up to $150,000 to have your whole body preserved. But for the
more frugal futurists, a mere $50,000 will preserve your brain for perpetuity -- an option known
as neurosuspension. Hopefully for those who have been preserved this way, technology will
come up with a way to clone or regenerate the rest of the body.
Following vitrification, patients are placed in individual
aluminum containers.
Each aluminum container is placed in a "neuropod" or
"wholebody pod" that is then immersed in liquid nitrogen.
This neuropod is being lowered into position among four
wholebody pods in a storage tank.
If you opt for cryonic suspension, expect to have some company. Several bodies and/or heads are
often stored together in the same liquid-nitrogen-filled tank.
This container is designed to hold four wholebody patients
and six neuropatients immersed in liquid nitrogen at -196
degrees Celsius. Liquid nitrogen is added periodically to
replace the small amount that evaporates.
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How Cryonics Works
by Stephanie Watson
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Has Anyone Been Preserved Using Cryonics?

Dozens of people are being stored in cryonic facilities. Probably the most famous of them is
baseball legend Ted Williams (see below). But no one has actually been revived, because the
technology to do so still does not exist.
Critics say companies that perform cryonics are simply bilking people out of their money with
the promise of an immortality they cannot deliver. Even scientists who perform cryonics say they
haven't successfully revived anyone -- and don't expect to be able to do so in the near future. One
of the problems is that, if the warming process isn't done at exactly the right speed, the cells
could turn to ice and shatter.
Even though people in cryonic suspension haven't yet been revived, living organisms can be --
and have been -- brought back from a dead or near-dead state. Defibrillators and CPR bring
accident and heart attack victims back from the dead on an almost daily basis. Neurosurgeons
often cool patients' bodies so they can operate on aneurysms -- enlarged blood vessels in the
brain -- without damaging or rupturing them. Human embryos that are frozen in fertility clinics,
defrosted and implanted in a mother's uterus grow into perfectly normal human beings.
Cryobiologists are hopeful that a new technology called nanotechnology will make revival a
reality someday. Nanotechnology uses microscopic machines to manipulate single atoms -- the
tiniest units of an organism -- to build or repair virtually anything, including human cells and
tissues. The hope is that, one day, nanotechnology will repair not only the cellular damage
caused by the freezing process, but also the damage caused by aging and disease. Some
cryobiologists predict that the first cryonic revival might occur somewhere around the year 2040.
A Famous Hitter is Frozen in Time
Since his death in 2002, baseball legend Ted Williams has been
stored in a 10-foot-tall, stainless steel container at Alcor Life
Extension Foundation in Arizona, the world's largest cryonics
facility. His head is reportedly being stored in a separate container.
But the story doesn't end there. After his death, the famous
slugger became embroiled in a rather bizarre custody battle. His
daughter, Bobby-Jo Williams Ferrell, fought in court to get her
father's body back so that she could have him cremated and his
ashes sprinkled over the Florida Keys, which she claims was his
wish. She accused her half-brother John-Henry Williams of
wanting to preserve their father's body so that he could cash in on
his famous DNA. But John Henry and his sister Claudia said they
had signed a pact with their father in 2000 promising to have all of
their remains frozen. The three siblings finally reached a
settlement: Ted Williams was allowed to stay where he was, and
John-Henry promised not to sell any of his father's DNA.
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The History of Cryonics

The first person to be cryogenically frozen was a 73-year-old
psychologist, Dr. James Bedford, who was suspended in 1967.
His body is reportedly still in good condition at Alcor Life
Extension Foundation.
The idea that a person could be frozen and then brought back to
life when the technology had evolved far enough originated
with the book "The Prospect of Immortality," written by
physics teacher Robert Ettinger in 1964. The word "cryonics"
is derived from the Greek term for "cold."
By the late 1970s, there were about six cryonics companies in
the United States. But to preserve and then maintain each body
indefinitely was so expensive, many of these companies wound Photo courtesy Alcor Life Extension
up closing shop by the following decade. Foundation
Dr. James Bedford
Today, only a handful of companies offer full cryosuspension
services, including Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Arizona
and the Cryonics Institute in Michigan. In early 2004, Alcor had more than 650 members and 59
patients in cryopreservation.
For more information on cryonics and related topics, check out the links on the next page.

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How Cryonics Works

Watson, Stephanie. "How Cryonics Works." 05 January 2005. HowStuffWorks.com.

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Photo courtesy Alcor Life Extension Foundation

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How Cryonics Works

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Watson, Stephanie. "How Cryonics Works." 05 January 2005. HowStuffWorks.com.

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How is Cryonics Performed?

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The History of Cryonics

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