Hi All

Interstellar travel - and even Out-Planet missions - could take years, with massive requirements of closed-cycle biospheres and the like. So naturally enough many sci-fi writers use the device of suspended animation. Now it seems its actualisation isn't far-off, but is on offer as a medical procedure, at least partly. Here's a Wired article on the latest biomedical process for suspended animation of organs on offer...

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.05/biotime.html?tw=wn_tophead_6

...here's a copy of the article (already!) on rense...

http://www.rense.com/general52/feeze.htm

...the company offering the service, BioTime, is currently putting patients (albeit, animal models, though close to humans) into a deep hypothermia, to basically suspend biological processes and stop blood-flow. Next move is using a cryoprotectant to freeze animals, brain-dead organ donors and, maybe, live patients once their technique is verified and the FDA lose their jitters.

No surprises that the company's directors are Cryonics believers - seems their efforts might be starting to pay off. Personally I doubt the current corpsicles awaiting resurrection will ever be recovered, as ice crystals will have mashed their neural structures, but if the cryoprotectant pans out that will change. Then will we see a run of Cryonauts trying for a fast-forward?

Adam