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Hibernation on Demand

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."

31 of 185 comments (clear)

  1. Hibernating by DarkHelmet · · Score: 4, Funny

    If only we could put those dupes on ice...

    --
    /^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
    1. Re:Hibernating by JoshRoss · · Score: 2, Funny

      I was going to sell my RTFA3000 software, but then I realized that Tridge was going to reverse engineer it. Therefore, I decided to preemptively revoke slashdot's license.

  2. First Human Tests... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...are apparently with Slashdot editors.

  3. There is a drawback he reports ... by Nice2Cats · · Score: 4, Funny

    ... you spend the rest of your life smelling like rotten eggs because of the sulfide...

    1. Re:There is a drawback he reports ... by OrangeSpyderMan · · Score: 3, Funny

      ... you spend the rest of your life smelling like rotten eggs because of the sulfide...

      This is actually a feature - "Hey geeks, hibernate and retain that unwashed smell you spent your life creating" :-)

      --
      Try NetBSD... safe,straightforward,useful.
  4. Wow! It works! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    This hibernation thing really works. Seems like only yesterday that I went to bed after reading about this.

  5. oh shut up, honestly by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In further news, READ YOUR OWN FUCKING SITE once a day you stupid fuck.

    1. Re:oh shut up, honestly by MoogMan · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Calm down dear, its only a slashdot article.

  6. Worst Dupe Ever by chronos82 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Oh MY FUCKING GOD HOW DID THIS GET THROUGH? The previous story couldnt have been more than 2 days ago. Ive had enough of this shit, Im handing in my slashdot ID, from now on I shall post anonymously as a Coward, and get modded up more. Christ, you people have turned this place into a fucking joke.

    1. Re:Worst Dupe Ever by martingunnarsson · · Score: 3, Informative

      If you're a suscriber there's a link to report "problems" with an article. I reported this one and many before it as dupes. Sometimes it helps (perhaps if enough people complain about a story), sometimes it doesn't.

      --
      Martin
  7. In other news... by nacturation · · Score: 4, Funny

    Microsoft initiates legal action against the researchers for numerous violations of patents covering the Windows Hiberation feature.

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  8. I wish... by CaptainPuff · · Score: 4, Funny

    I was on hibernation long enough to get some fresh stories...

  9. I regularly hibernate... by Zemran · · Score: 4, Funny

    each day at work ... I normally recover in time to go home without any ill effects and do not require the smell of rotting eggs.

    --
    I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
  10. Travelling to the year 3000 by Goalie_Ca · · Score: 3, Funny

    So now i'll be able to bite his shiny metal ass!?

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  11. If you thought this is a dupe then... by A+beautiful+mind · · Score: 4, Funny

    Just wait until Zonk dupes CmdrTaco's "Update For for the dupe. Not going well. Appreciate all the hate mail. Really encourages improvement.".

    --
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    Be yourself no matter what they say
  12. Why Dupes really get posted by Stripsurge · · Score: 2, Insightful

    They are very popular articles. Just look how many replies they get. Sometimes they even more than the original article. Not only that but there is an outpouring of emotion. So much anger is spawned from just a few clicks of the keyboard (ok maybe they just copy paste from the original post. I really dunno) Most importantly though it is the one subject that ALL Slashdotters can agree upon. Dupes are TEH Suck.

    Just a thought. How about the next obvious dupe that comes along nobody reply. See if we can it to get off the front page without a single reply. It'll never happen but a man can dream.

  13. Make use of this space by OBeardedOne · · Score: 4, Funny

    Since this is a dupe (and a very recent one at that) and all we're going to hear is whinging about it being a dupe I figure why not make use of the space. I submit that we change the subject to something worthwhile discussing: Category: ASK SLASHDOT Subject: DUPE ARTICLES "With all of the fancy software and technology at their disposal, how is it possible for Slashdot to not have a "technological" system in place to ensure that dupe articles are not submitted to the front page? Are their systems too complicated to enable the development and use of a simple dupe article checker that would automatically search and warn of similar, perhaps identical, articles that have recently been posted? Is it that the cost of such software is prohibitive, or that they believe submission of dupe articles are considered "funny" to readers and therefore help the bottom line? Or is it pure laziness? Discuss.

  14. I don't mind the occasional dupes but by FidelCatsro · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Im sick fed up of the constant row of "OMG DUPE yo idiotz" posts that follow.
    a constant dupe of "this is a dupe" posts ....
    People take your own advice and stop duping previous comments

    --
    The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
  15. Dupes and subscribers by theolein · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I think it's time that there was an open discussion of dupes (This article is a dupe of one poasted last night).

    There have been pro and against arguments. The pro argument have been that some people miss the original articles and have a second chance to post. The neutral argument has been that if one doesn't like the dupe, one should simpy ignore it. Both of these arguments make good sense.

    However, slashdot is in some sense a commercial enterprise. The majority are, of course, not subscribers, but there must be quite a few all the same. Slashdot also gets paid by advertisers to get many hits. Advertisers could argue that they get less hits on dupe articles.

    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.

    1. Re:Dupes and subscribers by Cougar_ · · Score: 2, Insightful

      How hard is it to just read all the articles. I read them all, and I have only a few minutes a day to spend viewing Slashdot. Surely those being paid to contribute to Slashdot could spend a bit of time each day reading everything that's been posted since their last visit?

    2. Re:Dupes and subscribers by Pedrito · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I also understand that it can be difficult to detect a dupe when such a large number of articles

      Why is it so difficult? They post what, 20 articles a day? How hard is it to look over the past 100 topics to see if it was previously posted? I agree, though that a simple tool could provide them with the ability to detect these. I don't even think you'd need Bayesian techniques. A simple comparison of the less common words would probably bring 90% of them out pretty quickly.

      But as I posted a while ago: Where's their incentive to improve their quality? What, are we all going to go somewhere else and stop reading Slashdot? I don't suspect that will happen anytime soon.

      The fact is, Slashdot is an amateur operation that happens to make a little money. I doubt they make that much. When was the last time they updated the web site in any significant way? Let's face it, these guys aren't working for a living. That's cool. I'm sure a lot of people would in their situation. But they clearly don't follow their own site and they clearly could care less about what people think about it. If they did, the site would improve.

    3. Re:Dupes and subscribers by Andrewkov · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That's my thought exactly .. These dupes send a clear message that the Slashdot staff, who are *paid* to work for a for-profit company, spend less time reading the site than the casual readers. I'm not a /. addict by any means, but I do login a few times a day from work to see what's happening. If a casual reader like myself can spot these dupes, why can't the editors? Do they actually read their own site less than I do?

    4. 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

    5. Re:Dupes and subscribers by Maxwell'sSilverLART · · Score: 2, Informative

      These dupes send a clear message that the Slashdot staff, who are *paid* to work for a for-profit company....

      That's because you're doing it all wrong. The staff doesn't care. But there is a solution; you mention that they work for a for-profit company. Gentlemen, I give you the contact information for the Open Source Technology Group, Slashdot's parent company:

      46939 Bayside Parkway
      Fremont, CA 94538

      Toll free: (877) 825-4689
      Phone: (510) 687-7000
      Fax: (510) 687-7155

      E-mail: info@ostg.com [not linkified for spam reasons]
      (Source: http://www.ostg.com/contact/index.htm) You want the editors to, erm, edit? Complain to their bosses.
      --
      Moderate drunk! It's more fun that way!
  16. Re:DUPE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Interesting? Are you people completely insane?

  17. Surviving hibernation by theufo · · Score: 5, Informative

    Why aren't hibernating mammals eaten alive by microorganisms? (yes there was a discussion before) Well, apparantly their immune system is actually disabled. However, they wake up periodically, specifically to fight off any infections.

    http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/04/02040 2074547.htm

    Humans can't do this if their cytochrome C is inhibited by hydrogen sulfide, so if you ever do this with humans, you'd have to make sure they wake up periodically to prevent all kinds of nastyness.

    Bats seem to have a different strategy. They stay in deep hibernation for prolonged periods up to 90 days, but their biochemistry changes quite drastically in order to do this. It's unlikely that human cells are able to change themselves so drastically.

    http://physrev.physiology.org/cgi/content/full/83/ 4/1153

    I really wonder what would happen to a mouse if you induce hibernation for more than a month.

    Buying hours and preventing damage would be a good purpose for artificial human hibernation, but I think space travel is a little far fetched.

    1. 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.

    2. 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.

  18. Re:Good Job, Slashdot by Chris+Kamel · · Score: 2, Funny

    And I've never seen such a worse grammar in my whole life :p

    --
    The following statement is true
    The preceding statement is false
  19. 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?

  20. Sorry 'bout the dupe submission ... by xmas2003 · · Score: 3, Funny
    I hadn't seen the earlier hibernation article, so I'll share the blame for this dupe since I was the one who submitted it.

    Oh well, maybe we can all go back to sleep now ... ;-)

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