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Ever wondered what it might be like to come back from the dead? If so, you may be interested to know that there is a start-up in Germany offering a second a chance at life. For the small fee of US$200,000, Tomorrow.Bio offers its customers the opportunity to have their body frozen after death, with the hope that one day they can be brought back to life.
Intrigued? Check out this gallery to find out more.
During 2025, they have plans to expand their operation to cover the whole of the US. Not everyone is a fan, however.
So far, the company has cryopreserved (frozen) “three or four” people and five pets; they have another 700 future clients already signed up.
Indeed, it is difficult to believe in the project’s potential success, given there is currently no proof that organisms with brain structures as complex as humans’ can be restored after death.
The cryopreservation process at Tomorrow.Bio works as follows. First, the patient must sign up with the firm.
Once a doctor has confirmed that the patient is within the final days of their life, the team dispatches a special ambulance to the patient’s location.
The cryopreservation process itself involves cooling down the body to sub-zero temperatures and supplying it with cryptoprotective fluid.
The cooling curve is very specific, and it involves cooling the body down very quickly until around -125°C (257°F), and then very slowly from -125°C to -196°C (384.8°F).
Once the body is at the right temperature, it is transferred to a storage unit in Switzerland, where, according to the team, it can be stored indefinitely.
The idea is that the cryopreservation can be reversed once scientists have found a cure for whatever caused the patient’s death in the first place.
By warming the patient back up and potentially bringing them back to life, doctors would then have the opportunity to cure the original illness.
The work of this company has been inspired by cases in which hearts have stopped in freezing temperatures and then successfully restarted later.
The cryopreservation service on offer at Tomorrow.Bio has nonetheless come under heavy fire. The main criticism leveled at the project is that there is no evidence it will actually work.
Indeed, until now, no one has ever been successfully revived following a process of cryopreservation, and even if they were, it’s likely they would be severely brain damaged.
As soon as a human heart stops beating, the cells in the body start to decompose, and this causes an enormous amount of damage.
According to neuroscience professor Clive Coen, if the body is warmed back up after cryopreservation, all the decomposition that was underway will just resume.
It is Coen’s opinion that the better focus in this field is cryogenics: the long-term cryopreservation of specific materials like tissues and organs.
It would be beneficial to a number of areas of medicine if we get to the point where organs can be frozen, banked, and then used later.
Another argument against cryopreservation is that it is not worth the huge financial investment given the unlikelihood of success.
Indeed, it is easy to imagine that relatives of people who decide to undergo this process may not be too pleased that their inheritance is being blown on such a tiny chance.
As soon as the patient is legally pronounced dead, the team moves them to the ambulance, where the process of cryopreservation begins.
According to Kendziorra, a lot of the resistance they are seeing is due to the fact that bringing someone back from the dead seems strange.
He argues that a lot of medical procedures, including organ transplants, seemed strange at first. If they work, however, it doesn’t take long for them to become mainstream.
Kendziorra also believes that there is encouraging proof within animal research that entire organisms can, in fact, transcend death.
One study that he cites is related to a species of roundworm that was cryopreserved and successfully returned to full function.
Research suggests that this preoccupation with death and the desire to postpone it could be a direct consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sources: (BBC)
Whether cryopreservation is a realistic goal or not, the interest in the field is symptomatic of a general boom in the field of life extension.
Indeed, for years now people have become increasingly interested in extending their time on earth. A particular focus has been on longevity.
According to one BBC article, Kendziorra decided to switch fields because he found the progress on curing cancer “far too slow.”
Tomorrow.Bio is a German company whose dynamic founder, Emil Kendziorra, used to work in the field of cancer research.
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HEALTH Death
Ever wondered what it might be like to come back from the dead? If so, you may be interested to know that there is a start-up in Germany offering a second a chance at life. For the small fee of US$200,000, Tomorrow.Bio offers its customers the opportunity to have their body frozen after death, with the hope that one day they can be brought back to life.
Intrigued? Check out this gallery to find out more.