DailyDirt: Bringing Back The Undead
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
Nature has a few examples of animals coming back to life after appearing to be dead -- and not just pretending to be dead, but actually surviving a state of very low metabolism. There are even a few bizarre news reports about people coming back to life. (Ahem, and we're not referring to a certain someone who is well-known for Easter.) Here are just a few examples of seemingly-extreme resuscitation.- North American wood frogs can freeze solid and appear dead, until they thaw in the spring and get down to business. The trick is to thaw in the right way. If a frog's brain thawed before its heart did, the frog would have some problems. [url]
- Hibernating black bears stay dormant for 5-7 months without eating, drinking or doing much of anything. However, a hibernating bear's body temperature doesn't drop much -- about 10 °F -- even though the bear's metabolism is at about 25% of its normal rate. [url]
- There are a few companies working on cryonics -- freezing people who believe they can be revived when medical technology is much more advanced. Maybe these people are hoping to meet Erin Gray someday.... [url]
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: bears, cryonics, death, erin gray, frogs, hibernation, reanimation, resuscitation
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Erin Grey
She's a very nice lady, but she did NOT freeze herself and so will not be in the 25th century to greet everyone looking like she's in her 20s in skintight white leather bodysuits ;)
(She's really a pleasure to talk to!)
Ehud
Tucson AZ
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
However, fish can absolutely enter a dormant state (which is the same condition that is achieved through hibernation) when their temperature or metabolic rate is reduced due to environmental conditions such as water temperature or water oxygen content falling below certain levels.
In the end, it's the same state. It's how you get there that determines if it's hibernation or not.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frozen_Dead_Guy_Days
I lived next door to grandpa for a while. He was a nice quiet neighbor.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
One such rescue was the one of Anna B�genholm, that went head first through the ice 18:20. She managed to find an air pocket and stayed conscious for 40 minutes upside down and locked in the ice. Her friends chopped away the ice for 80 minutes and were then able to drag her up and out of it.
Her body temperature was 13.7 degrees Celsius.
Mads Gilbert and his team of doctors saved her and the first heartbeat came 22:15.
She recovered completely and is now a full time doctor herself.
Information in norwegian
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
UNN
They also rescued John Arve Johansen after an 7 hour long cardiac arrest. He had been sustained with manual CPR. Probably the longest so far anywhere on the planet.
Ideally, every major hospital should be this skillful and progress knowledge this fast.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Polar bears
(And whales can dive for close to an hour without needing a breath. Not evry animal is as hampered as humans.)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]