Cryogenic freezing: how close is science to reviving the dead?

No one has managed to defeat death yet, but the human race never stops trying.

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Cryogenic freezing is a process in which a body is frozen at an extremely low temperature, in the hope that it will be revived after thawing at some point in the future.

To date, this process has only succeeded in Hollywood, where heroes of fantasy films are sent on spaceships across light-years and wake up on another planet as if nothing happened.

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Last January, researchers succeeded in restoring full activity to mouse brain cells after freezing them at a temperature of minus 150 degrees.

This achievement was made possible through the use of a protein called vitellin as an antifreeze agent — a protein found in the eggs of silkworms.

The protein prevents the formation of crystals during the freezing process, thereby protecting the cells from damage.

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Last year, an Australian company opened a body preservation facility after years of preparation, and welcomed its first client.

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Despite the optimism, it is important to remember that from a scientific standpoint, the process of returning to life from such a state is still considered to have no realistic chance of success.

The human body contains 250 types of living cells, each of which requires a different freezing process in order to prevent damage.

Since separating the cells into 250 distinct processes is not technically feasible, it appears that for the foreseeable future this possibility will remain the exclusive domain of science fiction films.

Cryogenic freezing: how close is science to reviving the dead?