Cryonics: Could We Really Bring People Back to Life?

You put a dying person in suspended animation until, possibly thousands of years from now, medical science is able to cure them... or their brain can be put in a sweet robot body. It's an age-old sci-fi trope, but there are scientists out there working on making cryonics a reality!

Hosted by: Michael Aranda

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[Superpacman]

I was banned from xbox until the year 9999, please freeze me

[Waltham]

I was able to revive a pizza from my freezer.

[xXFluffers]

Cryogenics has a much more practical use in space travel. Placing a crew in a ship, suspending their animation, and sending them off for decades, centuries, maybe even thousands of years, and leaving the ship on autopilot.

[ryanstaudacher]

Not a single futurama refrence in the whole video.... 😢

[cicadafun]

But if all processes in the brain suddenly stopped due to freezing...that person technically wouldn't exist anymore until revival, correct? I wonder how that would feel like. Probably along the lines of falling asleep and waking up the next day, unaware of the time passed.

[fredgerd]

So....

You're saying I shouldn't freeze myself to help pass the time during the month long wait for the latest gaming console?

[iTractin]

Cryonics - when Sanic can't go fast enough

[DrakeFellwing]

There is another way around it using nano machines and a brain 'jar' to keep the brain simply alive. Granted... That could be a horrifying experience if you were at all conscious.

[megyo]

This is definitely one of the coolest SciShow episodes yet. Great assessment of the realities of cryopreservation and as always, great production value.

[PikaPetey]

I had a brain freeze when I drank a slushy.

[kebekdisk]

My wife & I are very happy to take a chance with Cryonics Institute. :)

[typograf]

The thought of reviving a bunch of rich people from the past in a future burdened by the disasters caused by the said rich people has some promise in it.

[jabberwockydraco]

I feel the spinal cord is somewhat important as well

[Martial-Mat]

Looking at future science through the lens of our eye now to deermine the possible is almost facile. Imagine if even Napoleonic era doctors had tried to predict what would be possible now? Pennicillin, lifespans doubled, limb transplants, brain surgery!

I think that it's an absolute certainty that if the human race survives, nano doctors or another types of cellular or sub cellular surgery will become the norm. I think that Star Trek will be proven to have been conservative about the possibilities.

[harshitaswaminathan]

Okay this is the coolest topic SciShow has covered so far MORE LIKE THIS PLEASE THIS IS SO INTERESTING

[james_games]

" very long way off " generally when people who get frozen expect to be woken up

[eashansoni]

100 years ago people thought flight was impossible now. 30 years ago, no one imagined that we would have the greatest repository of information humanity has ever created at our fingertips. What we think is impossible now may very well be possible in the future, perhaps even in the near future (20 - 30 years). People grossly underestimate the pace of technological advancement.

[SirCannonball]

1:14 - "...usually with liquid nitrogen"
Huh...so, Boris might actually be invincible after all.

[dannyzep]

One of my favorite topics that really straddles science fiction and almost real

[brandonhall]

For anyone interested, Wait But Why did a really in-depth article on cryonics.