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ESA To Study Human Hibernation

Posted by timothy on from the that-report-will-be-a-snooze dept.

colonist writes "The European Space Agency (ESA) plans to study human hibernation for long-duration space voyages (a la 'Alien', '2001'). Although 'practical hibernation mechanisms are at least a decade away', ESA researchers will make initial inquiries into DADLE (D-Ala,D-Leu-enkephalin), an opium-like drug that triggers hibernation in ground squirrels and human cells. Other subjects of interest include dobutamine, a drug that maintains muscle, and the Madagascan fat-tailed dwarf lemur, the only primate known to hibernate."

7 of 379 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Good job ESA by mirko · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Not everybody is attached to their family and relatives, some might even appreciate a century-time shift in order to refresh their relations.

    --
    Trolling using another account since 2005.
  2. Re:Does cancer hibernate too? - Easier Surgury? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Put the patient into hibernation with local pain killers rather than forcing them into unconsciousness?
    And what, precisely, do you see the as philosophical difference between being drugged into hibernation and being drugged into unconsciousness?
  3. Your Skills would suffer though... by FirstNoel · · Score: 2, Insightful

    25 years without and skillset update? With the way tech updates now, you definitely would be out of place.

    Sean D.

    --
    "Hmm. I am to metaphor cheese as metaphor cheese is to transitive verb crackers!"
  4. Re:Women on long-term space flights? by iphayd · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I know I am replying seriously to a joke, but...

    Women, with limited reproductive capability, have an instinct to protect themselves from unfit fathers.

    Men sleep after sex to counteract the ability to reproduce with another female almost immediately after copulation, hence keeping the couple intact longer.

    Of course society has come in and screwed us all up. Women now get pissed at us for sleeping, despite being a chemical reaction. Alcohol and Hollywood screw up what people consider healthy. ... and now back to your regularly scheduled topic.

  5. Re:Women on long-term space flights? by vidarh · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You must be incredibly bad in bed if you have that effect on women...

  6. Re:Good job ESA by 2nd+Post! · · Score: 3, Insightful

    And you'd wake up tired, irritable, and cranky, seeing as you only had 3 hours of sleep!

    --

    GPL Deconstructed
  7. Re:Women on long-term space flights? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Well, that's a theory now and that's cool. Desmond Morris has tons of such theories and they're fun, but they're nothing but speculation. You should be careful about stating such things as facts when it is just as easy to present it for what it is, which is an interesting potential possiblity which certainly has not been conclusively proven to be a fact. You can be interesting without insisting on being right. It took me a long time to learn that, but there's a lot of truth to it.