Turning science fiction into science fact, American doctors are preparing to chill volunteers into a state of suspended animation that could keep them asleep for months. Medical teams in Los Angeles, Boston and Pittsburgh are racing to become the first to test out new theories of “induced hibernation” which could save lives and also help to send man towards the stars.
Hasan Alam, a surgeon at Massachusetts general hospital and consultant to the US army, is poised to start the first human trials before the end of the year.
Alam has experimented on eight-stone Yorkshire pigs, stopping the heart and electrical activity in the brain for up to two hours before slowly replacing the plasma with warm blood and reviving the animals with no apparent long-term effects.
Source: Times Online
Image: Jbrd / Flickr
Tags: Hibernate | Science
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