This gag came to me a couple weeks ago when we had a really cold spell and I had a bad cold (which killed my appetite and my energy).
Cryogenic freezing is an interesting concept. There are some species of animals, such as wood frogs, that can practically freeze solid without any tissue damage and can emerge again after a hard winter to resume completely normal functions and metabolism. The reason they can do this is because high levels of glucose and urea are released in the tissues when temperatures drop. (High saturation of solutes significantly decreases freezing temperature. This is why putting salt on an icy road melts the ice and prevents ice from forming.) Mammals that hibernate also reduce metabolism (body temperature, heart rate, etc) significantly – to a point of an almost death stasis.
How researching these processes can be useful to people depends on your interests, I guess. If you are into sci-fi type applications, it could be used to keep people in stasis for multi-decade space voyages. If you are less, um, spacy, you might be more appreciative of metabolism research and how it applies to obesity, aging, and disease.
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