Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

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."

15 of 379 comments (clear)

  1. If it weren't for my daughter... by grasshoppa · · Score: 3, Interesting

    SIGN. ME. UP.

    Hell ya, I'd go hibernate, and very likely get paid for it. Can you say, "Test subject"?

    --
    Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
  2. Good job ESA by strictnein · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This type of research is the future of human space exploration, at least for the forseeable future. Sorry, but light speed, or anything near light speed, just isn't going to happen anytime soon.
    The only downside to this is that the space traveler may seem like the trip only lasted a short time period, when it in fact took 10 years. By the time he gets back home his family will have aged 20 years. It actually may be the closest we get to time travel as well (want to see the future? just hybernate for 100 years).

    --
    Casual Games/Downloads
    1. Re:Good job ESA by WormholeFiend · · Score: 4, Interesting

      By the time he gets back home his family will have aged 20 years. It actually may be the closest we get to time travel as well (want to see the future? just hybernate for 100 years).

      I don't think hibernation prevents aging...

    2. Re:Good job ESA by Monkey-Man2000 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      If that were true, it would be nice if this became so commonplace that you could "hibernate" every night for about 8 hours. Thereby, extending your lifespan by ~33%.

      --
      This post was generated by a Cadre of Uber Monkeys for Monkey-Man2000 (603495).
    3. Re:Good job ESA by AKAImBatman · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Believe it or not, the speed of light is easy to "beat". It's just a problem of "beating it" in some usable fashion.

      For example, quantum tunneling allows a particle to travel faster than light for a mere instant of a second by stealing energy from nearby particles. In the end, however, it has to pay back the energy it used. This means that its net velocity never exceeded light speed.

      On the more macro level, there is a theory that wormholes could be used to circumvent light speed. Unfortunately, no one knows how to generate enough energy, or where to find the "exotic matter" to create them.

      Another (possibly even more credible) theory on FTL travel, is the Alcubierre Drive, often confused with the Star Trek notion of a "Warp Drive". Again, the core problem is that we have no idea where the energy for such a craft would come from.

      If none of this suits your fancy, then just load up on a few kilotons of Antimatter, and blast off toward the edge of the Universe at 1G of acceleration. Thanks to the dilation of space-time, you should be able to reach the edge of the known Universe in barely a few years time! Of course, there's this slight issue with Earth no longer existing by the time you got back...

      Good luck, intrepid space traveller!

      --
      Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
    4. Re:Good job ESA by Abcd1234 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It may, actually. Assuming such hibernation significantly reduces the basal metabolic rate, it can be surmised that lifespan would likely be extended. For example, the lifespan of lab rats have been greatly extended by placing them on an ultra-low-calorie diet, and it is theorized that this increase in lifespan is due to the decreased basal metabolic rate resulting from such a diet.

  3. Does cancer hibernate too? by Euphonious+Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I wonder if tumors stop growing during hibernation. If they do, then everybody with (expected-) fatal cancer can just hibernate until there's a cure.

    Likewise aging...

  4. I hope there going for basic science... by Retric · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Interesting but I think they're going to need to work out how to prevent bone loss if you're going to hibernate for a significant portion of the time in space. Anyway I hope there going for a basic science approach to the subject because if dobutamine maintains muscle mass during hibernation then it might also help with coma/bed-ridden patients.

  5. Atrophy by Short+Circuit · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Having someone sleep indefinately is only a matter of controlled sedatives. I imagine their biggest problem is going to be organ atrophy.

    If they solve that, then they'll have an extremely valuable spinoff technology that will help everyone from the temporarily wheelchair-bound to the hospitalized.

    --
    tasks(723) drafts(105) languages(484) examples(29106)
  6. Does cancer hibernate too? - Easier Surgury? by mykepredko · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I wondered the same thing - and going ahead with this, would it be easier to operate on somebody in hibernation?

    Would hibernation be part of a safer anesthetic protocol for surgury? Put the patient into hibernation with local pain killers rather than forcing them into unconsciousness?

    This could be a very useful spin-off of this technology and maybe be more important to humanity than facilitating very long duration space-flight.

    myke

    --
    Mimetics Inc. Twitter
    1. Re:Does cancer hibernate too? - Easier Surgury? by mykepredko · · Score: 3, Interesting

      And what, precisely, do you see the as philosophical difference between being drugged into hibernation and being drugged into unconsciousness?

      None - the current drugs used to "put somebody under" for surgury and lowering blood pressure/heart rate/respiration are dangerous and require constant monitoring of the patient. If the same function could be provide by a "hibernation drug", I presume that this would be easier on the patient and safer through the course of the surgury.

      myke

      --
      Mimetics Inc. Twitter
  7. Seasonal Affective Disorder by Beryllium+Sphere(tm) · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Some humans gain weight and lower activity when the days get shorter. Is it possible that we have a vestigial hibernation response already?

  8. Reasons the Article doesn't go into.... by Artifakt · · Score: 4, Interesting

    1. Radiation shielding on long term voyages seems to be a real bear of a problem for manned spaceflight to the planets. It might be feasable to put a bunch of shielding around a small compartment with a hybernaut where it wouldn't be feasable to shield all the working and sleeping areas for an awake astronaut.

    2. By extension, a 2001-like approach becomes workable - Put part of the crew into hybernation, rotate them in and out as needed. In 2001, this was supposed to be because the planetside geologists and such had little to do until Discovery was close to Jupiter, and then the security/paranoia factor kicked in. In the real case, a ship might rotate crew to even out radiation exposure, or put a crewman who was loosing bone mass faster than others into hybernation to protect his health.

    --
    Who is John Cabal?
  9. worthing saga by joeldg · · Score: 3, Interesting
    If you have ever read the worthing saga the ideas put forth in that book are amazing for what people might do if given the ability to suspend themselves while time goes by.
    Setting huge plans in motion while sleeping away, they end up with an entire section of the populace that tries to "live" as long as they possibly can. It is really an interesting take on how things like this could kind of get out of hand.


    Book Description

    It was a miracle of science that permitted human beings to live, if not forever, then for a long, long time. Some people, anyway. The rich, the powerful--they lived their lives at the rate of one year every ten. Somec created two societies: that of people who lived out their normal span and died, and those who slept away the decades, skipping over the intervening years and events. It allowed great plans to be put in motion. It allowed interstellar Empires to be built.

    It came near to destroying humanity.

    After a long, long time of decadence and stagnation, a few seed ships were sent out to save our species. They carried human embryos and supplies, and teaching robots, and one man. The Worthing Saga is the story of one of these men, Jason WOrthing, and the world he found for the seed he carried.

    Orson Scott Card is "a master of the art of storytelling" (Booklist), and The Worthing Saga is a story that only he could have written.


    --
    anime+manga together at last.. in real time.
  10. Re:Alternative Idea by Ralph+Wiggam · · Score: 4, Interesting

    That's cool that bears can maintain a moderate body temp for months without eating. Having a huge layer of fat is usefull. That could be a new diet. You take two weeks off of work, go into hibernation in some lab, and have your body consume your fat gut while you sleep.

    -B