You may live on in the hearts and minds of others , but what if there was another , more radical direction to keep going after you die ? Say , uploading your brain to a calculator so that an artificial version of you’re able to take your place ? Sounds like the plot of a Spielberg film , but believe it or not , scientist think it ’s possible , and a pregnant stride in this direction has just been made .
Researchers have managed to cryogenically preserve the entire brain of a rabbit and then thaw it more than two twenty-four hour period afterwards , while keeping the cells and their vital connector intact . Although this does n’t intend that the electronic organ would be functional if scientists ever attempted to revivify the animal , it does represent a breakthrough in the subject area of cryonics and lays the foundations for future work where research worker will descale - up the function into larger , more medically relevant fauna .
The achievement , made by investigator at twenty-first Century Medicine , has won the group the Brain Preservation Foundation ’s Small Mammal Brain Preservation Prize , narrowly whip Max Planck investigator Shawn Mikula ’s like project on mouse to the Charles William Post . describe in the journalCryobiology , this is the “ first demo that near arrant , farsighted - terminal figure structural preservation of an intact mammalian head is achievable , ” aBPF statementwrote .
The tonality to cryopreservation dwell in the bar of ice crystal establishment , which can damage the cells ' ticklish structure . To do this , the tissue is swamp with certain “ antifreeze , ” or cryoprotectant chemicals that basically ferment the organ into a glass , a process known as vitrification . In this case , the scientist started off by using a fixative hollo glutaraldehyde , which they rapidly perfused through the brain ’s vasculature . As the name suggests , this fixes things in place so that they do n’t begin to disgrace after the stream of blood , and therefore nutrients and oxygen , is bar .
This successfully stabilize the wit tissue so that cryoprotectants could then be diffused throughout the reed organ , reaching deep tissues that were inaccessible during previous attack , lead to significant shrinkage . After the nous was vitrified , it was stored at -135ºC ( -211ºF ) for an extended period of time before being dissolve and then cut into slender slices for examination .
Microscopy then revealed stunningly uniform conservation throughout the brain , not just in terminus of the cells and their structures but also the connection between neuron , or synapses , across which information flows . Since it is trust that our memory board are indite in these connections , collectively experience as the “ collectome , ” the possibleness has been thrown out there that one day , it might be possible to read this data and upload it onto an artificial arrangement , a variety of “ synthetic ” revival . This , scientists say , would be easy than attempting to keep the tissue functional and viable in preparation for revival of the body from a cryogenic Department of State , for exemplar after a therapeutic for a baneful or severely debilitating disease has been found .
Whether or not this goal is realistic remains to be seen , but what the scientist have attain is in no doubt impressive . The next stage for the BPF ’s challenger is achieving the same with a pig brain , and one has already been submitted for limited review . Watch this infinite .
picture in textbook : The lapin mind conk in for reposition . Kenneth Hayworth / Brain Preservation Foundation
