Human Hibernation Is a Real Possibility | Hacker News Reader

Human Hibernation Is a Real Possibility

theatlantic.com

95 pointsgozzoo31 comments

>The squirrels Drew studies, for example, curl up into little balls and plummet from 99 degrees to 27. This drops their basal metabolic rate by about 99 percent.

Not sure if this is meant to be C or F, but either the squirrels are boiling hot normally, or frozen solid while hibernating.

Fahrenheit

From the study:

> ...their core body temperature falls to as low as −2.9 °C, or 2.3 °C below the equilibrium freezing point of their body fluids. At these body temperatures, arctic ground squirrels avoid freezing by supercooling, which refers to the metastable state that fluids enter when cooled below their crystallization temperature in the absence of catalysts of freezing, or nucleators.

Does that mean that if you kick a hibernating Arctic ground squirrel It will freeze solid?

That sounds both fascinating and horrible at the same time.

Thank you, +1 for reading the study I was too lazy to look at.

If squirrels survived 99c, it’d be impossible to cook them. Those dudes would probably be stockpiling nuts inside volcanoes.

If squirrels survived 99c, they would be traveling back in time.

Edit: don't look at this reply, look at the answer with a direct citation from the article.

Almost certainly Fahrenheit. 32F is only the freezing point for pure water; most impurities reduce that. Now 27F is still pretty low, as most seawater freezes around 28F, but could be done no problem with the right chemicals. The key is making sure no areas have pure enough water to crystallize and expand, which is what destroys cells and other small structures.

I thought 0F was the temperature the Baltic Sea froze at. Which is why Dr. Fahrenheit chose that as his zero.

That can't be right, because salt water freezes at a point a few degrees below fresh water. Now, 0F is defined where fresh water freezes.

That's patently false, 0C fresh water freezes 0F a specific brine freezes

FTA:

When she and I spoke, it was 35 degrees Fahrenheit below zero (without wind chill) at her lab in Fairbanks, at 2:00 in the afternoon (just before sunset). Suddenly my case for hibernation felt trivial.

All subsequent temperatures are in that unit unless otherwise specified

I believe there's a frog in Alaska that essentially has antifreeze for blood to prevent ice crystals.

The squirrel must use a similar trick.

It is actually F.

Feels kind of misleading to say that humans lack no organ for hibernating, and then bring up at the end that hibernating animals have a different bowel structure to prevent sepsis.

Also the bit about "Astronauts would need a tube surgically implanted in their abdomen to remain fed during their hibernation"

I'm confused about that part. There's cases of people living without food for many months, given enough stored body fat. I'm assuming there's a reason for the surgical approach (you still need water and supplements), but I think the article isn't clear on what it is.

Let's say you hibernated 4 months each year starting at age 35, if you live to 85, that would be an extra 16 years of wall clock life. A person born in the year 2000 could live past 2100, or at least until there are more advanced therapies available. I could see hibernation retreats becoming a big business if this technology works out.

Imagine going into hibernation at the beginning of february this year and waking up now.

Perfect timing. The ski slopes all closed mid March, and the beaches have been re-opened. If you have the cash to sleep for 4 months, you probably spend most of your time doing activities and the economic impacts are trivial.

If you live in a country where these things aren't available to you, well yeah, sucks to be you in that situation.

If cheap and safe enough, hybernation would be the perfect social isolation technology.

Does hibernating extend lifespan?

It slows down metabolism, so it would make sense for it to slow down aging, and thus extend lifespan, as well.

Interesting read. I read an article years ago about early humans in Europe who did indeed hibernate or slept a few months of the year when it was very cold and no food.

This one? I think it was posted to HN a few years ago.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1117993/

There was another that dealt with prehistory as well...

Yes, well remembered!

I was hoping to find a clue to why I can sleep indefinitely, at least 70 hours straight. It feels like what I imagined hibernating to be.

I still have my OEM bowel tho; I guess my super sleep isn't actual hibernation.

Maybe you could, but would you want to?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBvIweCIgwk

So that scene in The Abyss was not so far-fetched after all.

Lindsey’s drowning and hypothermia or the liquid breathing rat?

I was referring to Lindsey's drowning/hypothermia in this case.

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