Scientists create 'zombie' dogs

dr. what · Post by **dr. what** » 2005-06-27 12:36am

Come on--say it with me----brains...brains.....

SCIENTISTS have created eerie zombie dogs, reanimating the canines after several hours of clinical death in attempts to develop suspended animation for humans.

US scientists have succeeded in reviving the dogs after three hours of clinical death, paving the way for trials on humans within years.
Pittsburgh's Safar Centre for Resuscitation Research has developed a technique in which subject's veins are drained of blood and filled with an ice-cold salt solution.

The animals are considered scientifically dead, as they stop breathing and have no heartbeat or brain activity.

But three hours later, their blood is replaced and the zombie dogs are brought back to life with an electric shock.

Plans to test the technique on humans should be realised within a year, according to the Safar Centre.

However rather than sending people to sleep for years, then bringing them back to life to benefit from medical advances, the boffins would be happy to keep people in this state for just a few hours,

But even a this should be enough to save lives such as battlefield casualties and victims of stabbings or gunshot wounds, who have suffered huge blood loss.

Duing the procedure blood is replaced with saline solution at a few degrees above zero. The dogs' body temperature drops to only 7C, compared with the usual 37C, inducing a state of hypothermia before death.

Although the animals are clinically dead, their tissues and organs are perfectly preserved.

Damaged blood vessels and tissues can then be repaired via surgery. The dogs are brought back to life by returning the blood to their bodies,giving them 100 per cent oxygen and applying electric shocks to restart their hearts.

Tests show they are perfectly normal, with no brain damage.

"The results are stunning. I think in 10 years we will be able to prevent death in a certain segment of those using this technology," said one US battlefield doctor.

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Seriously--this is fucking awesome.....

Alyeska · Post by **Alyeska** » 2005-06-27 12:38am

This is most interesting indeed. The new surgical techniques and other methods for keeping people alive are seriously wicked.

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2005-06-27 12:43am

Let me just say for the record

"AHHH!! ZOMBIESS! Quick were's my shotgun!??! Gotta kill them all before they eat my brains!"
Wonder how long they will strech the time-limit out for.

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2005-06-27 12:47am

I'm rather surprised that the dogs haven't suffered brain damage...

Darth Raptor · Post by **Darth Raptor** » 2005-06-27 12:52am

Awesome!

They're going to test this on humans? "Who wants to die for three hours? Anyone? No?"

I sense difinitive proof on whether or not there's an afterlife on the horizon...

Lord of the Abyss · Post by **Lord of the Abyss** » 2005-06-27 01:11am

I thought they had been doing this sort of "reanimation" procedure for years, primarily to treat brain aneurysms. They even showed it on an episode of CSI, I think.

The older method only works for an hour, though IIRC.

Here's what I remember about how it works :
Deep anesthesia
Lower Body temp to near freezing
Remove and store blood
Operate
Replace blood
Raise body temp to normal
Counter drugs

It sure sounds similar.

I never heard reports of the subjects eating brains, however.

I'm rather surprised that the dogs haven't suffered brain damage...

The cold preserves the tissue, just like you see sometimes when someone falls into freezing water. If everything goes right, the body just *stops*; the tissue just sits there, neither funtioning nor decaying. Processes like this are an artificial attept to duplicate this in a more reliable way.

Duckie · Post by **Duckie** » 2005-06-27 01:11am

Darth Raptor wrote:Awesome!

They're going to test this on humans? "Who wants to die for three hours? Anyone? No?"

I sense difinitive proof on whether or not there's an afterlife on the horizon...

The religious would just say it's an interruption of conciousness/life and not a true death, so God doesn't send you anywhere.

As to the topic, I find this a bit too creepy to be enthused about. Killing someone to bring them back definately qualifies for "Make Ready To Destroy Your Stairs" in my Zombie Checklist.

I wouldn't freeze myself for medical benefits, either. Chances are when you wake up everyone else you know is old or dead.

Nephtys · Post by **Nephtys** » 2005-06-27 01:12am

Hurrah! Cryonics works! At least in the short-term. That's really, really promising news for us who don't plan on dying.

Chmee · Post by **Chmee** » 2005-06-27 01:13am

Today: 3 hours

Tomorrow: cryosleep for interstellar travel

Nephtys · Post by **Nephtys** » 2005-06-27 01:15am

Chmee wrote:Today: 3 hours

Tomorrow: cryosleep for interstellar travel

...Botany Bay?! This cannot be... KHAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!!!!

Alferd Packer · Post by **Alferd Packer** » 2005-06-27 01:16am

Darth Raptor wrote:I sense difinitive proof on whether or not there's an afterlife on the horizon...

I thought the same thing, but then I realized that a faithful person will likely just invent Heaven after the fact, while a skeptic would likely report nothing. That's the problem with such an endeavour: you're relying on testimony after the fact, because no direct observation is possible. Who knows what sort of contortions the human brain goes through when it gets near death, and how will people interpret those contortions when revived? I think this will answer nothing.

GrandMasterTerwynn · Post by **GrandMasterTerwynn** » 2005-06-27 01:17am

Darth Raptor wrote:Awesome! :shock:

They're going to test this on humans? "Who wants to die for three hours? Anyone? No?"

I sense difinitive proof on whether or not there's an afterlife on the horizon...

I wouldn't quite say that. What there will be definitive proof of is if we can induce the same zero-oxygen-consumption standby state that we can induce in dogs and mice. More technically, if the switch remains functional in human beings. Since we know that there seems to be a cellular switch that's activated under certain conditions when a cell is deprived of oxygen that will prompt it to go into standby mode and await nicer circumstances.

That's what they seem to be doing by cooling the dogs down to a few degrees above freezing. If they were left warm, then the aerobic chemical reactions in their cells would continue to rapidly progress to the point they ran out of oxygen, prompting the cells to die. And when some cells die under stress, it causes their neighbors to do the same thing in an orgy of cellular suicide. When you cool them down, you slow the chemical reactions down to the point that when you turn off the oxygen, they'll gracefully go into standby.

Now, I say this with the caveat that I may be tying to completely independent mechanisms together, which would mean that everything I just typed is probably not exactly correct, but eh.

Lord of the Abyss · Post by **Lord of the Abyss** » 2005-06-27 01:32am

As far as the idea that cryonics will prove/ disprove an afterlife, I always liked Spider Robinson's idea. If you freeze someone so that they are "dead", the soul departs. When you warm them up, a soul returns - but not the original. You get reincarnation, instead.

Exonerate · Post by **Exonerate** » 2005-06-27 01:33am

Alferd Packer wrote:
Darth Raptor wrote:I sense difinitive proof on whether or not there's an afterlife on the horizon...
I thought the same thing, but then I realized that a faithful person will likely just invent Heaven after the fact, while a skeptic would likely report nothing. That's the problem with such an endeavour: you're relying on testimony after the fact, because no direct observation is possible. Who knows what sort of contortions the human brain goes through when it gets near death, and how will people interpret those contortions when revived? I think this will answer nothing.

Pfft, obviously if they are able to return, the soul hasn't left the body!

On a more serious note, this is pretty awesome... I'm also surprised the dogs didn't suffer any visible brain damage. One step closer to immortality?

Darth Raptor · Post by **Darth Raptor** » 2005-06-27 01:37am

I don't see how this could directly extend someone's life. It only postpones death by "pausing" your life, so to speak. This may keep people in stasis until the technology exists to reverse the ravages of aging, but this cannot be considered life extension per se.

Nephtys · Post by **Nephtys** » 2005-06-27 01:39am

Darth Raptor wrote:I don't see how this could directly extend someone's life. It only postpones death by "pausing" your life, so to speak. This may keep people in stasis until the technology exists to reverse the ravages of aging, but this cannot be considered life extension per se.

The fact that we can be living beyond our natural years is good enough. I mean, hey. Cryonics could do either full-body or neurosuspension, and since Liquid Nitrogen is really cheap, you could go far for the starter fee. Perhaps for another hundred years or two, when we may even have body replacement.

Darth Raptor · Post by **Darth Raptor** » 2005-06-27 01:48am

Nephtys wrote:The fact that we can be living beyond our natural years is good enough. I mean, hey. Cryonics could do either full-body or neurosuspension, and since Liquid Nitrogen is really cheap, you could go far for the starter fee. Perhaps for another hundred years or two, when we may even have body replacement.

You're talking about downloading one's neural net into a "blank" clone or a sufficiently advanced android, right? Because as I understand it our bodies are genetically programmed to die, and although this programming may be overriden, it's there for a reason. Wear and tear at the molecular level would eventually make life very difficult, if not impossible.

This of course raises questions about what self is and I'm too lazy to delve into abstract concepts like that right now. Suffice to say I find it far more likely that we have replacement bodies than ways to keep our current ones running indefinately.

Of course, for true immortality you would need the ability to escape into a newer, younger universe eventually.

Duckie · Post by **Duckie** » 2005-06-27 01:49am

Darth Raptor wrote:I don't see how this could directly extend someone's life. It only postpones death by "pausing" your life, so to speak. This may keep people in stasis until the technology exists to reverse the ravages of aging, but this cannot be considered life extension per se.

What I'm curious is, using this would interrupt your conciousness, so would it feel like time travel, as in?:

A: I want to freeze myself.
B: Okay.
*fffffffzzzz*
A: What year is it?
B: Ten seconds from now, I was just testing.
A: Oh.
*fffffffzzzzz*
A: When am I?
C: Just wanted to let you know your descendants now rule the world with an iron fist.
A: Righteous!
*ffffzzzzz*
A: Mmm?
D: Ah. A Hu-Man. Inter-est-ing. We have not had a Hu-Man avail-a-ble for di-sect-ion in a while. This will be edu-ca-tion-al.

Nephtys · Post by **Nephtys** » 2005-06-27 02:06am

Darth Raptor wrote:
Nephtys wrote:The fact that we can be living beyond our natural years is good enough. I mean, hey. Cryonics could do either full-body or neurosuspension, and since Liquid Nitrogen is really cheap, you could go far for the starter fee. Perhaps for another hundred years or two, when we may even have body replacement.
You're talking about downloading one's neural net into a "blank" clone or a sufficiently advanced android, right? Because as I understand it our bodies are genetically programmed to die, and although this programming may be overriden, it's there for a reason. Wear and tear at the molecular level would eventually make life very difficult, if not impossible.

This of course raises questions about what self is and I'm too lazy to delve into abstract concepts like that right now. Suffice to say I find it far more likely that we have replacement bodies than ways to keep our current ones running indefinately.

Of course, for true immortality you would need the ability to escape into a newer, younger universe eventually.

I'm talking at least in the short term one of many possibilities. Brain/head transfusion to a cloned body is one sci-fiey, but possible realm. As is a 'Motoko Kusanagi' artificial body. Our brains'll still wear, but I'm sure they'd have at least some treatment if they get to that advanced a stage.

Lord of the Abyss · Post by **Lord of the Abyss** » 2005-06-27 02:24am

I'm talking at least in the short term one of many possibilities. Brain/head transfusion to a cloned body is one sci-fiey, but possible realm. As is a 'Motoko Kusanagi' artificial body. Our brains'll still wear, but I'm sure they'd have at least some treatment if they get to that advanced a stage.

Well, if you can put the brain in a new body, you only need to solve life extension for brain tissue. That's probably easier than fixing the much wider variety of tissue you see in a whole body.

CaptainChewbacca · Post by **CaptainChewbacca** » 2005-06-27 02:40am

You'd have to pay me a LOT of fucking money to be the first one in a clinical trial.

Lord of the Abyss · Post by **Lord of the Abyss** » 2005-06-27 02:42am

You'd have to pay me a LOT of fucking money to be the first one in a clinical trial.

Given how extreme this is, it's more likely you would be in a "It's this or death" situation.

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2005-06-27 03:13am

You'd have to pay me a LOT of fucking money to be the first one in a clinical trial.

Even if it remains obscenely expensive, it's still no problem. Put a thousand bucks in the local bank and tell them to wake you up in a 150 years. By that time all the money you've made on interest ought to take care of any hospital bills.

Archaic` · Post by **Archaic`** » 2005-06-27 07:37am

Assuming there hasn't been an economic crash in the meanwhile.

wautd · Post by **wautd** » 2005-06-27 07:48am

Archaic` wrote:Assuming there hasn't been an economic crash in the meanwhile.

incidently, congrats on your 666'th post