>From: Doug Skrecky <oberon@vcn.bc.ca>
>Reply-To: extropians@extropy.org
>To: extropians-digest@extropy.com
>Subject: Gene research scientists close to human hibernation breakthrough
>Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2000 08:18:27 -0800 (PST)
>
>CryoNet - Wed 20 Dec 2000
>
>Message #15136
>From: Eugene.Leitl
>http://www.independent.co.uk/news/UK/Science/2000-12/gene031200.shtml
>
>Gene research scientists close to human hibernation breakthrough
>
>By Jonathan Thompson
>
>Space travel hibernation, said Professor Andrews, is still "pure
>science fiction".
Without artificial gravity, wouldn't there be severe atrophy? There would be
expenses saved on food, but you would still need to supply a life support
system.
I see it as useful only in an emergency type situation where food is running
out. There's an accident on a Mars colony, half the food is lost, so 90% of
the crew goes into hibernation while waiting for the new supplies to arrive.
But he added: "More realistically, one of the
>first main benefits of this process could be organ preservation.
>If you could put organs into long-term stasis, as does a hibernator,
>you could preserve them for months. At the moment, body organs will
>only keep for about three or four days. Hibernation could eventually
>save lives."
>
>At the International Hibernation Society's eleventh symposium in
>August, held in the Austrian village of Jungholz, Kathrine Dausmann,
>one of Professor Heldmaier's protgs, presented evidence of the
>first-known hibernating primate, a Madagascan lemur. "The fact that
>primates, our closest relatives, can hibernate, again revived the
>speculation about the possibility of this process in humans," said
>Professor Heldmaier.
>
Possibly, but I suspect that in the millions of years of not hibernating,
our bodies have developed dependencies on our wake/sleep cycle. I wake up
with a headache if I sleep just 14 hours.
Does anyone know how Bears and Squirrels eliminate feces and urine while
hibernating?
---------------------------------------------------
Zeb Haradon (zebharadon@hotmail.com)
My personal webpage:
http://www.inconnect.com/~zharadon/ubunix
A movie I'm directing:
http://www.elevatormovie.com
"Fish fuck in it." - W. C. Fields answer to why he never drank water.
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