Natural Gas to Offer Breakthrough in Suspended Animation?

Kingcanute writes "The BBC is reporting that American scientists are claiming that sewer gas may be successful at inducing suspended animation. The results were achieved using mice but further studies are needed" From the article: "The problem with hypothermia is it's not that easy to cool down the human body so if we can find another method to inhibit metabolism that would be very useful"

Comments

Farts are healthy?

[nog_lorp]

So, finally a decent theory may be developed as to why farts increase lifespan. (Quick check - ok, farts do contains hydrogen sulfide)

Re:Farts are healthy?

[LinuxGeek]

Wow! No wonder time seems to really drag by when I pull my finger...

Re:Farts are healthy?

[hullabalucination]

Actually, it's not that the lifespan of the gas releaser increases. It's that the lifetimes of those in close proximity to the gas releaser tend to be shortened, thus making the releaser's own life seem longer by comparison. This is known to biologists as the Fluglemann Effect. Biologists also note a related phenomenon: the Gas Density Relative Dispersal Effect (known by its acronym, GDRDE), wherein a population of animals or people will tend to disperse into the environment over time in vectors orienting away from the position of the gas releaser. Biologists are still debating the cause of the effect, although the phenomenon itself is easily observable and quantifiable.

Some easy experiments you can perform yourself to investigate these phenomena:

• Release gas in the broom closet at the end of the hall (you know, the one next to the upstairs bathroom that nobody ever uses). Lock your kid sister in there by blocking the door in some fashion. Release her from the closet after exactly 10 minutes have passed, and ask her to estimate how long she thought she was locked in. Now, repeat this experiment 3 times a week for the next 60 years and record the date of her death, then compare with the average lifespan for women in your same country within the same ethnic group and of the same social class, income level and access to health care who were born in the same year.
• Release gas in the lobby of a large theater during intermission (a movie will do; an opera is better) and plot the exact movement of every other person in the lobby as a function of time. EXTRA CREDIT: try to convince the manager to give you a refund on your ticket because the theater "smells funny."

* * * * *

I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.
--Mae West

Re:Farts are healthy?

[Walt Dismal]

This explains the incredible lifespans of bean-eating gurus in the Himalayas. Swami Mongo Bin Putrid claims to be over 120 years old, though no one can get close enough to him to check.

Hell, I could have told you that!

[Anonymous Coward]

HAll my brother does is fart and the room goes dead.
I wouldn't mind a less smelly solution.

the Discovery

[Anonymous Coward]

somewhere in a small lab...

Scientist1: Well, we've tried freezing, that didn't work..
Scientist2: Yah, this is a pretty tuff one ya know, suspended animation?
Scientist3: GUYS I GOT AN IDEA!
Scientist1&2: ?!?
Scientist3: Will bathe the subject in farts
Scientist1: worth a shot.
Scientist2: Gentlemen, we may have cracked this one.

My experiments

[Anonymous Coward]

I pulled a Dutch oven on my SO and she didn't regain consciousness until half way to Alpha Centuri.

Fart jokes are not funny.

[suv4x4]

The reason they are not funny is because you all are overdoing it, tripping over each other to tell us how funny it is that swamp gas might be related to a fart.

Apparently the belief is that immense mental power is required to produce a fart joke, hence we should be roflmaoing and lolling choking with our own spit at you.

Flashnews: fart jokes, just like farts themselves, are only funny in moderation. And since they're only funny in moderation, I urge all moderators to mod them down versus mod them funny, and see where the discussion takes us on this, otherwise intesting, article.

Re:Fart jokes are not funny.

[Pharmboy]

And of course the fact that you are modded Funny makes the fart jokes even funnier. Hell the only reason I entered the comments for this article WAS for the fart jokes.

Just remember, the farts are funnier when they are your own. And yes, the concept is interesting....sigh.

Re:"would be very useful"

[Jeremi]

Exactly how is suspended animation on a massive scale useful?

Hmm... as a solution to prison overcrowding, perhaps?

if you want to see suspended animation...

[joshsnow]

...try running Doom3 on a 386sx with 1MB of RAM