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Hibernation on Demand

Posted by Zonk on from the good-way-to-get-back-home-after-the-xenomorph-attack dept.

Mr. Christmas Lights writes "Dr. Mark Roth at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has successfully induced a state of reversible metabolic hibernation in mice which (no surprise) is getting quite a bit of publicity. Attempts in the past have used cooling techniques, but Dr. Roth uses hydrogen sulfide (80 parts/million) to basically put the warm-blooded mice into an advanced hibernated state, with a drop from the normal 120 breaths/minute to less than 10. Core body temperature also drops as low as 11C (50F) to match the ambient room temperature. The mice recover in about two hours once normal air/temperatures are applied, with no apparent ill effects - apparently there is a mice IQ/motor-skills test. In addition to the obligatory reference to Woody Allen's Sleeper movie, this has applicability for emergency rooms as it would be beneficial to in ER medicine as a way of "buying time" while diagnosis is performed."

5 of 185 comments (clear)

  1. Re:DUPE by FidelCatsro · · Score: 1, Interesting

    This post is a dupe of http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=147097 &cid=12321366
    which was a dupe of http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=147097 &cid=12321362
    That .

    --
    The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
  2. Re:Surviving hibernation by Aimak · · Score: 2, Interesting

    AFIK, hydrogen sulfide would also inhibit the cytochrome C of all aerobic bacteria in the body. Hence, the infection risk may be decreased during the hibernation because these bacteria would be "hibernating" too.

    About the anaerobic bacteria found within our body, I'm not sure. Perhaps a combined effect with low temperature could also prevent these anaerobic bacteria of growing.

    Low temperature (not freezing) and a mixture of gases may be the way to go about long-term hibernation.

  3. Software solution for dupes? by rdurell · · Score: 3, Interesting

    So I have a software based suggestion for how to ameliorate the dupe problem. My suggestion would add a step to both the initial submit of the story as well as to the post of the story. Additionally, the responsibility for preventing dupes is shared between the submitter and the editor.

    1) User completes submission form
    2) The user's write-up is compared to the last year or so worth of posts. (You could pull keywords from the submission, pattern match or use any number of other techniques.)
    3) The user is presented with a list of similar articles
    4) The user then reviews the list of articles
    5) The user either abandons the submit as a dupe or continues/certifies the submit as not a dupe to the best of his/her knowledge

    The editor would encounter a similar process (following steps 3-5). It is important that the editors follow this process as well to help them find and reject dupes that a submitter may not have (or chose not to) noticed.

    This would probably not eliminate all dupes, but should help mitigate the issue.

    Thoughts?

  4. Re:Surviving hibernation by mbrod · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I would think the hydrogen sulfide in the body would also induce hibernation in the microorganisms in the body. Slowing them down.

  5. Re:Dupes and subscribers by studog-slashdot · · Score: 2, Interesting
    In these last two cases, it isn't exactly a shiny example of quality in a product (if one can look upin slashdot as a product) to see so many dupes. I know that the sheer number of dupes in slashdot would prevent me from subscribing as I see it as a problem of editors being disinterested in checking what they post.

    What Slashdot really needs is the ability to mod articles as well as comments. Then dupes would get (-1, Redundant) and disappear.

    ....Stu