History

What is cryonics?
How is Cryonics performed?
Has anyone been preserved using cryonics?
A star is frozen - The example of Ted Williams

Dr. James Bedford

1

- sich entwickeln

- abgeleitet

- enstehen

first person who was cryogenically

frozen was the 73-year-old
psychologist Dr. James Bedford in
1967
His body is reportedly still in good
condition at Alcor Life Extension
Foundation
This idea that a person could be
frozen and then brought back to life
when the technology had evolved1
far enough originated2 with the
book The Prospect of Immortality
written by physics teacher Robert
Ettinger in 1964
word cryonics is derived3 from
the Greek term of cold

by the late 1970s, there were about six

cryonics companies in the United
States
because of the expensive preservation 1
and maintenance many of these
companies were closed in the
following decade
today, only a handful companies offer
full cryosuspension2 services
(includes the 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

cryogenic storage containers at

Alcor Life Extension Foundation
1

- Erhaltung

- cryonische Aufbewahrung

cryonics = practice of preserving

human bodies in extremely cold
temperatures with the hope of
reviving them sometime in the future
Idea: if someone has died from a
disease which is incurable1 today, the
person can be frozen and then
revived in the future when a cure 2
has been discovered
a person preserved this way is said to
be in cryonic suspension
to understand the technology behind
cryonics: example of people who
have fallen into an icy lake and have
been submerged3 for up to an hour in
the frigid water before they have
been rescued

vision of cryochamber
1

- unheilbar

- untertauchen

- Heilmittel

in an operating room a cryonics

patient is cooled in a vat6 of dry ice7
as part of the "freezing" procedure

- aufschieben

- Stoffwechsel

- durchleben

- geschehen

- wieder beleben

- Fass

- Trockeneis

some persons survived this because of a

suspended1 animation: water slowed down
their metabolism2 and brain function to the
point where they needed almost no oxygen
cryonics is a bit different from this:
first of all its illegal to perform cryonic
suspension on living humans: people who
undergo3 this procedure have first to be
pronounced legally dead (heart must have
stopped beating)
question: if they are dead, how can they
ever be revived?
Scientists: legally dead is not the same as
totally dead, total death is the point at
which all brain function ends
legal death occurs4 when the heart has
stopped beating, but some cellular brain
function remains
cryonics preserves this little cell function
that remains in that way that, theoretically,
the person can be resuscitated5 in the future

Condition
- Join a cryonics facility
annual membership fee of $ 400
Transport of your body after your
death
- After your official death an
emergency team from the facility will
come to transport your body
- Transport of body is only possible, if
there is a minimal function of the
brain until you can be transported
therefore your brain will supplied
with oxygen and blood

Operating room at Alcor Life Extension

Foundation

a surgeon prepares a patient for the

vitrification process
1

- abhalten

- gerinnen

- zersplittern

- Gewebe

- Bewegungslosigkeit, aufgeschobene
Bewegung,
5

Your body is packed into ice and

injected with heparin to prevent1 your
blood from clotting2 during the trip
At the facility a medical team awaits
your arrival
Process of freezing
The cryonics team must remove the
water from your cells and replace it
with a chemical mixture
The simply freezing of the whole
body is impossible
cells would shatter3
The cryonics scientists aim is to
protect the organs and tissues4 from
forming ice crystals
This process - called vitrification puts the cells into a state of
suspended animation5

Completing the vitrification (deep

cooling without freezing) the body
is cooled on a bed of dry ice until it
reaches -130C
After the vitrification process the
body is inserted into a container
filled with liquid nitrogen1 at a
temperature of -196C
Additionally the body is stored
head down to save the head should
there be a leak

Costs
- It can cost up to $ 150,000 to have
the whole body preserved
- Possibility of preserving only the
brain
hope the rest of the body
could be regenerated with the
technology of cloning

a computer displays temperature, flow

rate and pressure during the four-hour
vitrification procedure

- flssiger Stickstoff

Dozens of people are frozen in

cryonic containers
Technology is far away from being
able to revive frozen people
A lot of people blame the
organisations to make money with
promises they can't keep
If the frozen people are warmed in
the wrong way, the cells will be
destroyed
Today people can be revived after a
heart attack or an accident

each aluminium container is placed in a

"neuropod" or "wholebody pod" which is then
immersed1 in liquid nitrogen, this neuropod is
being lowered into position among four
wholebody pods in a storage tank

- eintauchen

Patients often get cold if they get

operated aneurysms in the brain, with
it they don't get damaged
Human embryos can be frozen and
later are implanted in a uterus, they
grow like every other human being
Nanotechnology is the big hope of the
cryobiologists, with this technology
individual cells could be manipulated
Some cryobiologists are hopeful to
revive the first frozen patient in 2040
container for four whole body
patients and six neuropatients
immersed in liquid nitrogen at
-196C

Ted Williams was a baseballlegend

Since his death in 2002, he is
stored in a steel container
His head is stored in a separate
container
His daughter wanted to sprinkle his
ashes over the Florida Keys
Her half brother and his sister said
that they had signed a pact with
him about freezing all of their
remains
The court decided that Ted stays
where he was

Sources:
- information:
http://science.howstuffworks.com/question736.htm
http://www.alcor.org/

- pictures:
http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/Game/BigIdeas/Images/cryochamber.jpg
http://science.howstuffworks.com/question736.htm

Bent, Benjamin, Marian