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11. Freeze Me When I Die

Listener Elspeth wants to know if living creatures can be frozen, stored and then reanimated. Our curious duo get into the chilling science of cryonics

When you die, would you want to be frozen so that one day you might be brought back to life? Listener Elspeth wants to know if that鈥檚 even possible. So Hannah and Dara embark on a quest to explore the chiling science of 鈥榗ryobiology鈥: preserving living things at really low temperatures.

It turns out there are already thousands of people alive who were once suspended in antifreeze and stored in liquid nitrogen - when they were just a small clump of cells! There鈥檚 even a frog which can turn into a 鈥榝rogsicle鈥 for months on end. But re-animating full size humans is a challenge no one has solved鈥et. Will some miraculous nanotechnology of a distant future solve the problem?

Contributors:

Professor Jo茫o Pedro de Magalh茫es: University of Birmingham
Hayley Campbell: Author and broadcaster
Professor Joyce Harper: UCL
Dr Hanane Hadj-Moussa: The Babraham Institute, Cambridge
Garrett Smyth: Cryonics UK

Producer: Ilan Goodman
Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem
A 大象传媒 Studios Audio Production

Release date:

Available now

28 minutes

On radio

Sat 14 Dec 2024 10:00

Broadcast

  • Sat 14 Dec 2024 10:00

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