What is cryogenic freezing? Human cryopreservation. Scientists are trying to revive “frozen” people. Holy place

Immortality is what people have strived and strive for. To solve this problem, various methods have been used at all times, but all of them were unsuccessful. The closest people came to realizing immortality was in the 20th century. But this is not real immortality, the ability to find a second life after death in the future. We are talking about cryo-freezing dead people immediately after their death, so that in the future, when appropriate technologies appear, they can be brought back to life.

Is the game worth the candle?

It’s worth saying right away that cryofreezing does not provide a 100% guarantee of revival in the future. No modern company providing such services, will not promise to bring a frozen person back to life after a certain number of years. The cryofreezing business is based on people’s belief that medical technologies will develop sufficiently to realize the main dream of humanity - immortality.

Revival after freezing may take on various forms in the future: modeling consciousness in computer systems, growing clones with the transfer of consciousness, restoring a dead body using nanotechnology, etc.

As you can see, the position of cryonics is quite shaky. Therefore, the vast majority of people are very skeptical about cryofreezing. It's because they don't know how complex the technology is are hidden behind a seemingly simple procedure. The techniques used in cryofreezing have been successfully used by doctors over the past 20 years for long-term storage of sperm and human embryos with the possibility of bringing them back to life.

What you need to know about cryonics?

To understand the essence of cryofreezing with the subsequent restoration of life, you need to understand what death is. It should be understood that death is not an instantaneous event. Dying is extended over time. The human body goes through several stages after death. Knowing this allows doctors to bring people who have experienced clinical death back to life.

Types of death:

• Clinical death. It manifests itself as cardiac and respiratory arrest. The human body loses signs of life. Blood in the vessels stops circulating, which leads to oxygen starvation of tissues. The central nervous system is the first to suffer from lack of oxygen. In particular, some time after death stops, the cerebral cortex and a number of subcortical structures are damaged. However, clinical death is reversible. Doctors have a few minutes to start the patient's heart.
• Brain death. Under normal conditions, it occurs 5 minutes after cardiac arrest. In this case, it is useless to resuscitate patients. Even if it is possible to start the heart, the patient will still not be conscious.

On average, when clinical death occurs, doctors have only 5–6 minutes to bring a person back to life. However, under certain conditions the time of clinical death increases by several tens of minutes. For example, the human body is cooled to a temperature of 20–25 °C. Low temperatures significantly slow down metabolic processes inside cells. This feature of the human body is successfully used by surgeons performing heart operations.

Human tissues have different resistance to the complete absence of oxygen:

• The heart continues to live for 2 hours after the death of the brain.
• Liver and kidneys within 4 hours.
• Muscles and skin – 6 hours.
• The bones remain alive for several days.

Even though the brain dies first, its cells do not die all at once. The fact is that a cell, at its core, is a special mechanism that requires energy to function. As soon as energy becomes insufficient, the cell loses its ability to recover.

This leads to disruption of the permeability of the cell membrane, an increase and subsequent destruction of organelles. That is, after the onset of biological death, most brain cells retain their structures for a certain time. This is what allows supporters of cryofreezing to claim that timely and careful preservation of the brain will make it possible in the future to restore the patient’s personality in a new body or in the body of an android.

Memory theory

Scientists suggest that a person's personality is shaped by his memories. Memory is determined neural connections between neurons located in different parts of the brain. In 2009, scientists from the United States began working on mapping the neural connections responsible for human long-term memory.

There are two theories of memory:

1. Synaptic theory. Its supporters are convinced that the basis of memory processes is a change in the conductivity of the synapse.
2. Biochemical theory. According to it, long-term memory can be stored in proteins, peptides, DNA or RNA.

Both theories suggest that brain damage does not necessarily cause memory loss. By the way, this assumption has been repeatedly confirmed by medical practice. For example, numerous cases are known, when, as a result of injury, patients lost quite large areas of the brain, but at the same time they completely retained their personality, consciousness and memories. Therefore, the words of cryonicists about the possibility of preserving personality do not seem crazy.

Frozen memory

Since ancient times, scientists have tried to freeze living organisms in order to prolong life, but until the middle of the last century such attempts were unsuccessful. The reason for failure is the destruction of cells when extracellular water freezes. Ice formation leads to increase the concentration of salts inside cells. This increases osmotic pressure and dehydrates the cell. Freezing can also cause ice to form inside cells. When the temperature drops below -40 °C, the salts contained in the cellular water can no longer prevent it from freezing. Crystallization of water ruptures the cell.

The problem was partially solved at the beginning of the last century. Scientists Lindforss and Maximov discovered cryoprotectors. These substances block the formation of ice in tissues.

Modern cryoprotectors are able to replace the water contained inside cells. When frozen below 130 °C, these substances become amorphous. Inside this “glass” the structural elements of the cell are stored.

How does cryo-freezing occur?

After doctors ascertain the biological death of a person, specialists begin to cool his body as quickly as possible. It's necessary to stop cell necrosis. At the same time as the body is cooled, perfusion begins. This process is the saturation of cells with cryoprotectors. The circulatory system is used to deliver the necessary substances to the tissues. On average, head perfusion takes 2 hours. It takes 4 hours to completely saturate the body with cryoprotectors.

Most cryopatients today choose head freezing. It's cheaper. In addition, the modern level medical technologies suggests that growing a new body will not be a major problem in the future.

After complete saturation of the cryopatient's head cryoprotectors, it is placed in a special container with dry ice and immersed in liquid nitrogen, where it can be stored indefinitely. Moreover, such storage does not require energy.

How popular is cryo-freezing?

Today, there are only 3 serious companies in the world that provide cryofreezing services and have their own storage facilities. Two companies are located in America and one in Russia. The total number of frozen people will soon exceed three hundred. At the same time, 41 patients were frozen in Russia alone.

Scientists admit that the chances of “resurrection” cannot be called zero. Moreover, they are confident that with the increasing popularity of the idea of ​​cryo-freezing, the chances of immortality will increase, because more money will be allocated for cryonics. We need to introduce cryonics into clinical practice. This will allow perfusion to begin as quickly as possible, which will greatly increase the chances of preserving the main structures of the brain. In addition, it is necessary to provide a legislative basis for cryofreezing to protect cryopatients. Finally, we just need to popularize this technology so as not to encounter situations where loved ones of deceased people prevent them from being frozen.

It is worth noting that cryofreezing is becoming more popular all over the world. For example, in China with government assistance A giant cryogenic storage facility is being developed, and a large cryogenic depository is being built in Switzerland. And the development of related sciences: transplantology, embryology, resuscitation and nanotechnology allows us to hope that immortality through cryo-freezing is quite achievable.

"Time machines" exist. There are already hundreds of them in the world, or more precisely in the USA and Russia. The Alcor company is based in Arizona, the Crionics Institute operates in Michigan, and is improving its capabilities in the Moscow region. "KrioRus".

The Americans have already accepted more than three hundred “time travelers,” and there are another fifteen hundred applicants on the waiting list.

The Russians, who started later, are quickly closing the gap: now 50 people and 20 animals are housed in dewar capsules. Plus he has dozens of live contracts. In the full sense of the living: in order to get to the future, you have to die.

Set aside dead line

A person cannot live longer than 115 years, suggest scientists from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, who published an article in the journal Nature in October of this year.

Having summarized information about the dynamics of human mortality and the maximum age of centenarians since the beginning of the 20th century, the researchers found that until 1980, the life expectancy of “elders” was gradually increasing. This was due to the use of vaccines, improvements in the quality of medical care and the successful fight against cancer and cardiovascular disease.

The age of the oldest inhabitants of the planet is very close to the century mark, but for two decades there has been no further progress. According to scientists, the chance of meeting a 125-year-old person is negligible.

But there are any number of incentives to try to push back this “line of death.” For example, the exploration of deep space.

The desire for immortality, eternal life is generally inherent in man, confirmation of which can be found in any religion and in world culture. A whole system of views has been formed - immortalism, the essence of which is the desire to push back physical death as far as possible, relying on technical and scientific achievements.

Naturalists are inspired by the example of the Dutchman van Leeuwenhoek, who in the 18th century discovered the phenomenon of anabiosis - the reversible cessation of vital activity by drying or freezing living organisms.

Over time, the hypothesis about the achievability of freezing as the safest and most promising method of life extension became popular and prompted the continuation of scientific research.

Improving technologies for cooling gases to ultra-low temperatures, discoveries in the field of molecular biology, and achievements in practical medicine became the prerequisites for the formation and development of cryonics (from the Greek cryos - cold) - a method of freezing a person or animal, allowing it to be thawed and revived in the future.

"No, all of me will not die"

The father of cryonics, Robert Ettinger, a scientist and author of the acclaimed 1960s book “The Prospects of Immortality,” became the 106th patient of the Cryonics Institute, which he himself founded. There is no mistake here - formally Ettinger died in 2011 at the age of 92, but for cryonicists he, like other deep-frozen time travelers, is not a “body”, not “remains”, but a patient.

Cryonics postulates that death is not an irrevocable one-time event, but a long process consisting of several stages. If, after declaring biological death, it is possible to preserve brain cells, it is possible to transfer the patient’s personality to the future, when the level of science and technology will be so high that it will be possible to reanimate a defrosted body or recreate it, at the same time eliminating diseases that are incurable today.

The cryopreservation procedure begins with hypothermia - cooling the body to zero degrees. This helps slow down the biochemical processes occurring in the body, including stopping cell necrosis.

A cryoprotector is introduced through the circulatory system gradually and carefully, so as not to damage the vessels with excessive pressure. Perfusion lasts from four to six hours. The patient is then cooled with dry ice and transported to a cryogenic storage facility, where a dewar container with liquid nitrogen is prepared for him.

Cryonics has not received unambiguous approval in the scientific community. Scientists see one of the problems, for example, as the impossibility of “restarting” the brain and returning the intact personality to life. Some people are confused by the lack of guarantees.

Cryofirms, indeed, do not provide them - without possessing the gift of foresight, it is impossible to imagine how quickly it will be possible to obtain tools and knowledge that can return cryopatients to a full life. It is a matter of faith in the method itself and trust in those who are its guides.

An open letter in support of cryonics was signed by 69 scientists around the world. The letter lists experimentally proven arguments for continuing research - for example, that the brain is able to restore activity after long-term storage, that large organs can be cryopreserved without structural damage and successfully transplanted after heating, that the vital activity and structure of complex neural networks can be well preserved during ultra-fast freezing.

Sleeping Beauty's Testament

"I don't want to be buried in the ground. I want to live, and live long, and I hope that in the future there will be a cure for my illness, and a way to wake me up. I need a chance. That is my desire."

Shortly before her death, a fourteen-year-old English woman with terminal cancer asked for her body to be cryopreserved, and the judge approved this decision.

It was not possible to do without the intervention of the justice authorities: the girl’s divorced parents had been living separately for a long time and their views on the daughter’s “afterlife” were diametrically opposed. After the court verdict, the father was forced to come to terms with the fact that the deceased, instead of resting in peace in the local cemetery, would go to await resurrection in the United States.

Officially, the activities of cryofirms today are interpreted as the provision of funeral services. It is possible to use the cryopreservation procedure only when brain death is legally recorded.

Legislators do not share the research interest of cryonicists, and do not take into account the need for the fastest possible response to the fact of a patient’s biological death. In Italy, for example, there is a law adopted back in the 60s of the 20th century, according to which any manipulation of the body of the deceased is prohibited within 24 hours after death is declared.

Formalizing the relationship between the cryogenic company and the patient is a scrupulous and timely process. Contracts for cryopreservation are increasingly being signed not by old people burdened with illnesses, but by completely healthy young people, romantic supporters of progress. Those who are concerned about the possibility of resurrection, already at the last line, are at great risk.

“There were sad stories in our practice,” says Valeria Udalova, general director of the KrioRus company. “A patient from Yokohama came to us at the end of last year. He had cancer in the last stage, and doctors gave him no more than six months.

The Japanese cryonics community was only involved in cryonics PR, and rather sluggishly, and hardly helped in our communication; more assistance was provided by an Alcor client who lived in Tokyo.

The correspondence proceeded slowly. In February, the patient became very ill - due to pneumonia, death was much closer to him than everyone expected. Realizing this, he, already in the hospital, said that he was ready to sign a contract and asked to send it urgently.

Our broker was one hour late. During this time, the uncle of the deceased, a categorical opponent of cryonics, managed to cremate the body."

With a cool head

You can pay for your freezing, transfer to the dewar and subsequent storage not only at once, but also in installments, through the annual transfer of membership fees. The price of the issue varies significantly - much depends on the list of services ordered and the client’s distance from the cryogenic storage facility. For the family of the already mentioned British patient, who created a legislative precedent, the procedure cost 37 thousand pounds sterling.

The most expensive - about 700 US dollars - is the annual membership in Alcor. Taking into account upcoming procedures, including processing, storage and resuscitation, the amount increases to $200,000. Costs can be reduced to $80,000, limiting ourselves to neuropreservation, that is, preserving not the entire body, but only the head or brain.

Cryonicists believe that this is quite enough. In fact, if we expect that the return to life will take place in a technologically advanced future, reconstructing the old body or creating a new body will not be a problem.

Russian prices are significantly lower: from $12,000 for neuropreservation to $36,000 for full-length cryopreservation. You will also have to pay for cryoprocedures with pets “humanely”. This does not stop loving owners: for example, in the KrioRus storage facilities there are 8 dogs, 8 cats, 3 birds and a chinchilla waiting in the wings.

“The time is not far off,” says Danila Medvedev, Chairman of the Board of Directors of KrioRus, “when cryonics will become a standard procedure and the standard choice of people. You will need to have very compelling reasons to go to a cemetery or crematorium instead of a cryoppositary.”

A 71-year-old woman became an American “patient” of a Russian cryogenic company. D. Hayko from California. After death, at the request of the children, her body was cooled to the temperature of dry ice (-80°C). In Moscow, the “ice grandmother” was frozen again to -195°C - the temperature of liquid nitrogen. Now her body, along with 35 other “frozen” ones, is waiting in the wings in a sarcophagus on the territory of a cryogenic storage facility near Moscow.

Ice mummies

“Many famous people believed in successful revival after flash freezing,” said AiF Yuri Pichugin, Candidate of Chemical Sciences, cryobiologist and head of the Russian cryology laboratory. - The founder of cryonics, who died in the USA, was frozen in liquid nitrogen Robert Ettinger. It is known that the artist was interested in cryonics Salvador Dali. Wanted to freeze Walt Disney, science fiction Arthur Clarke and other "celestials". In the United States today there are already more than 240 cryopatients - deceased people whose bodies, heads, or brains were frozen to -196°C. It is possible that the brain underwent a similar procedure M. Jackson, who, by the will of his relatives, was not buried with the body.”

Overseas, today there is no end to those wishing to arrange a “second earthly life” for themselves or their loved ones in such an unusual way, despite the fairly high prices: cryopreservation of a human body costs 40-250 thousand dollars, separately for the head or brain - 80-120 thousand dollars In Russia, you can cryopreserve much cheaper: entirely for 30 thousand dollars, and partly for only 10 thousand dollars. Although, according to skeptics, the revival of cryopreserved people even in the foreseeable future will become, to put it mildly, problematic.

“Ice crystals tear apart the nervous and circulatory systems, the structure of all tissues changes irreversibly,” AiF explained. Alexander Lavrin, writer, one of the founders of the “Party of Immortals”. - In addition, strong physical and chemical changes occur, all components of the human body are destroyed. The Nazis conducted similar experiments during the war. The experiments were carried out on concentration camp prisoners, who were placed into deep freezing using special injections. But they were not successful. However, there are cases when people, after being in very severe frost, showed almost no signs of life, but were still alive - blood was pulsating under the skin, although in a very condensed state. They were able to return to normal life.”

In the "gray zone"

Despite everything, cryobiologists promise their clients success. “The results of studies of nervous tissue using an electron microscope showed that the main matrix of the cell is preserved after cryopreservation. This means that there is a chance to revive the entire body, albeit with side effects, he convinces Danila Medvedev, futurologist, one of the leaders of the cryogenic company. - In the 80s. cryobiologists in the USA and Russia conducted hypothermia experiments on dogs and rats, which were kept for 2.5-4 hours at temperatures below zero and brought to a state of virtual death, without blood supply and brain activity.

After “defrosting” the animals behaved quite normally. It has already reached clinical trials of this technology on patients in American hospitals: a person is made “temporarily dead” for an hour and a half, cooling his body in order to be transported to the hospital in time in case of, for example, severe blood loss.”

Something similar, by the way, happens in artificial insemination clinics: a significant part of the embryos that are then implanted into women are stored there in liquid nitrogen. Tens and hundreds of thousands of people were born from thawed eggs. Individual body tissues used for transplantation are also cryopreserved.

What kind of people are “frozen” - still alive or already dead? “They strive to cryopreserve people in the so-called “gray zone” between life and final, biological death. From a legal point of view - dead. However, doctors can state brain death, although “in some places” the person is still alive, the cells have not begun to decompose and no irreversible changes have occurred in the body,” cryobiologists explain.

According to cryobiologists, the resurrection of the first “frozen” will occur “by 2050, and even more likely by 2100.” And those who can live to see this historical moment will see it.

Cryo-freezing (from the Greek kryos - cold, frost, ice) or cryonics is a method of freezing the body or individual parts of the body of a recently deceased person for the purpose of its subsequent revival in the future.

To ensure the safety of the body for a long period of time, it is necessary not only to freeze it, but first to pump out the water and stop the chemical processes occurring in it. Further preservation of the body occurs at low temperatures - almost minus 200 degrees. According to experts, if you prepare for cryo-freezing in advance, it can be carried out perfectly and preserve the body for centuries.

The future of cryonics

Proponents of cryofreezing place their main hopes on the use of nanotechnology, namely, with the help of nanorobots, eliminating irreversible damage in the human body. The first attempts at cryopreservation were tested a long time ago, both in animals and on human organs, and were very successful. Those. the organ, after defrosting, retained its biological structure and functionality. These prerequisites provided a great basis for the development of this industry. Many famous personalities have signed contracts to cryo-freeze their bodies after death. Of course, the main problem of cryonics remains the resurrection of a body after it has been frozen. During the existence of this technology, there were many unsuccessful cases, the reasons for which were:

• The high cost of keeping a body in cryogenic storage
• Loss of faith of relatives in this technology
• Various man-made disasters

And, unfortunately, no successful cases of resurrection of cryopreserved bodies have been recorded. But the reliability of resurrection forces many people to sign contracts with cryocenters, and relatives to spend considerable money on maintaining the body of the deceased in a frozen state.

How much does it cost

Prices for cryofreezing in the USA are quite high and range from 50 to 250 thousand dollars; in Russia, similar services cost from 300 thousand rubles. You can freeze only the brain and wait until scientists learn how to grow new bodies. Although the prospect here is quite vague, you can expect that after a certain time you will return to life in a young body.

Cryonics is a chance for a dying person to extend his life in the future. To do this, after special procedures (), people are immersed in a low-temperature environment, where all chemical reactions practically stop. The first cryopatient - American professor James Bedford - has been stored for almost 50 years without any signs of change.

Correctly performed procedures and reliable storage give hope that in the future, with the help of various technologies, it will be possible to restore cells in the brain and body of cryopatients or replace them with similar, but healthy ones. In this case, from the point of view of modern science, the cryopatient will be reanimated, he will come to life.

You can plan all these procedures for yourself or your relative using. We can quickly and efficiently cryopreserve a person and reliably preserve his body until the time when it becomes possible to revive cryonics patients. We strive to restore our patients to a new life. This is our mission. You did the right thing by deciding to contact us. Cryonics is a chance for revival in the future.

Our offers

To preserve a person, his personality, it is necessary to preserve, first of all, his brain. It is in the human brain that all neurons and connecting elements between them are preserved. From a scientific point of view, it is in the brain that a person’s memory and most of the information about his individual characteristics are stored.

You can order cryopreservation of only the human brain. This is called neuropreservation. It is also possible to cryopreserve the entire human body in KrioRus. Below our proposals for these positions are covered more fully.

Also, we recommend that you in advance, while the future cryopatient is still in good health. This is essential will improve the quality of cryonics, reducing on the day of cryonics the time required for all organizational steps: convincing relatives, reaching agreements with doctors, funeral and other services, transportation time from the morgue to the operating room, etc. As a result, the viability of the patient’s preserved cells will be much higher.

Full body preservation

To some people, preserving a person's brain or head seems a little unusual. For those who value the usual way of life, and also do not want to surprise family and friends, preserving the entire body of a cryopatient is more suitable. If you prefer to preserve the entire human body, we are ready to do this for you.

All procedures for cryopreservation of the human body are essentially the same as for neuropreservation, but due to the specific features, perfusion and storage in this case become significantly more complicated, which increases the cost of the cryopreservation service. Therefore, the cost of preserving the cryopatient’s body is currently 36,000 USD(or equivalent in rubles).

Approximately half of Russian cryopatients choose whole body preservation. We have sufficient experience in this kind of services.

Neuropreservation

Neuropreservation is the preservation of only the human brain at ultra-low temperatures.

Neuropreservation is usually of interest to people who are well acquainted with new technologies and technological and scientific forecasts. Neuropreservation is an option for those who understand that a person's personality - according to modern scientific views - is stored in his brain, and who expect that in the future a new body will be grown for the cryopatient as a collection of organs (for example, from the patient's own stem cells) or created artificial. Active work is underway in all these areas in research medical centers around the world.

In this case, we preserve the client’s brain or head (at the customer’s request) after his death, performing the highest possible quality perfusion and ensuring maximum reliability during storage. After the perfusion procedure, the patient’s body is buried or cremated; the cost of this may or may not be included in the price of the contract with the cryogenic company.

The cost of neurosaving is 15,000 USD (or the equivalent in rubles or other currencies) for Russians and 18,000 USD for foreign clients.

The most recommended BASIC payment OPTION is full one-time payment of the Agreement upon its conclusion. This option gives the greatest guarantee cryonics clients, since it gives the right to cryopreservation of a just deceased person by his relatives or to cryopreservation of the client himself or his relative at any time upon death, whenever it occurs.

VIP cryonics

If you are a wealthy person, you can use the VIP option. To do this, you can make any sponsorship contribution from 150,000 USD and above.

Advantages:

1. You receive a cryo-bracelet, this will allow you to track your vital activity. In the event of death, a rapid response team immediately leaves. This will allow cryopreservation to be carried out as efficiently as possible, ensuring a minimum time from the moment of biological death and maximum preservation of neurons.

2. You contribute to the development of cryonics in Russia and in the world. We will use your donation for scientific research, which will bring closer the moment when you and your family wake up from cryo-sleep and continue to live a full and healthy life.

3. At your request, your name will forever be included in the list of Trustees of our organization on a special page on our website and on a special sign in the office of our organization.

4. If you deposit more than 400,000 USD, at your request, a duty regime operates without additional payment - see above. This will maximize the quality of cryo-preservation for you. Also, you receive a GOLD cryobracelet.