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FulcrumPilot · Jun 27, 2005, 05:43 PM

This could be interesting at so many levels that I can't wait!

-FP

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117...-13762,00.html

Boffins create zombie dogs

By Nick Buchan of NEWS.com.au
June 27, 2005

Eerie ... boffins have brought dead dogs back to life, in the name of science.

SCIENTISTS have created eerie zombie dogs, reanimating the canines after several hours of clinical death in attempts to develop suspended animation for humans.
US scientists have succeeded in reviving the dogs after three hours of clinical death, paving the way for trials on humans within years.

Pittsburgh's Safar Centre for Resuscitation Research has developed a technique in which subject's veins are drained of blood and filled with an ice-cold salt solution.

The animals are considered scientifically dead, as they stop breathing and have no heartbeat or brain activity.

But three hours later, their blood is replaced and the zombie dogs are brought back to life with an electric shock.

Plans to test the technique on humans should be realised within a year, according to the Safar Centre.

However rather than sending people to sleep for years, then bringing them back to life to benefit from medical advances, the boffins would be happy to keep people in this state for just a few hours,

But even a this should be enough to save lives such as battlefield casualties and victims of stabbings or gunshot wounds, who have suffered huge blood loss.

Duing the procedure blood is replaced with saline solution at a few degrees above zero. The dogs' body temperature drops to only 7C, compared with the usual 37C, inducing a state of hypothermia before death.

Although the animals are clinically dead, their tissues and organs are perfectly preserved.

Damaged blood vessels and tissues can then be repaired via surgery. The dogs are brought back to life by returning the blood to their bodies,giving them 100 per cent oxygen and applying electric shocks to restart their hearts.

Tests show they are perfectly normal, with no brain damage.

"The results are stunning. I think in 10 years we will be able to prevent death in a certain segment of those using this technology," said one US battlefield doctor.

Cody Dawg · Jun 27, 2005, 05:54 PM

Just leave me dead, please.

Eug Wanker · Jun 27, 2005, 06:01 PM

demograph68 · Jun 27, 2005, 06:03 PM

I want to be resurrected like Jebus.

jasonsRX7 · Jun 27, 2005, 06:08 PM

Originally Posted by demograph68

I want to be resurrected like Jebus.

I want to be called a boffin.

sminch · Jun 27, 2005, 06:10 PM

i want to trust a news source that uses the term 'boffin'.

sminch

brapper · Jun 27, 2005, 06:10 PM

holy crap.

GSixZero · Jun 27, 2005, 06:15 PM

Is there some script that creates a thread under a random user for every article that slashdot posts?

I don't mind, I'm just wondering.

turtle777 · Jun 27, 2005, 06:21 PM

Originally Posted by GSixZero

Is there some script that creates a thread under a random user for every article that slashdot posts?

I don't mind, I'm just wondering.

Even better: a script that takes an RSS folder from Safari, and posts a new thread for each new headline.

All hail Automator, it is only a matter of time...

-t

jasonsRX7 · Jun 27, 2005, 06:23 PM

A friend of mine wrote a Firefox extension that makes it quick and easy to post links to some site, like boredom.com or something. I'll tell him to get to work on the 'NN version.

historylme · Jun 27, 2005, 06:31 PM

Ah that's great... we can all be our own gods.

edit: yeah, I edit my post. I'm not telling what I did though.

von Wrangell · Jun 27, 2005, 06:42 PM

Originally Posted by turtle777

Even better: a script that takes an RSS folder from Safari, and posts a new thread for each new headline.

All hail Automator, it is only a matter of time...

-t

hmmm, good idea....

:goes working on the implementation:

FulcrumPilot · Jun 27, 2005, 06:56 PM

Originally Posted by GSixZero

Is there some script that creates a thread under a random user for every article that slashdot posts?

I don't mind, I'm just wondering.

Cool idea! it should also take a screenshot of the story and create a mirror, then slashdot effect will be a thing of the past.

Mister Elf · Jun 27, 2005, 07:02 PM

Couldn't this also be used to cure early-stage HIV? If you replaced the blood you removied with "clean" blood, that didn't contain the virus, wouldn't that at least help treat the virus, if not completely cure it?

GSixZero · Jun 27, 2005, 07:23 PM

HIV lives everywhere, not just the blood.

TailsToo · Jun 27, 2005, 08:06 PM

Eww... I shouldn't be reading this so soon after dinner.

Mister Elf · Jun 27, 2005, 09:13 PM

In later stages, yes...but I'm talking about a case in which the person knows they've been exposed, i.e. they know a that person whose fluids they have come into contact with is HIV positive, they could choose to immediately undergo a treatment based on this technology instead of having to live with it. It would only work in cases where the person knew there was a large chance that they had contracted HIV and acted quickly.

JoshuaZ · Jun 27, 2005, 10:07 PM

Its already been done.

Time Burton's Frankenweenie!

RAILhead · Jun 27, 2005, 10:58 PM

Sometimes dead is better.

sminch · Jun 27, 2005, 11:13 PM

i'm no virologist, but i imagine that removing virus-carrying blood wouldn't do much as the virus would already have infected at least some non-blood cells - sorta like removing a cancerous lung when it's already spread to the liver.

one groovy thing i have seen, though, is a machine that takes out your blood, warms it, and pumps it straight back into you - for use in cases of extreme hypothermia.

the op sounds like it could be a workable idea, just that there'll be a pretty narrow window in which it'll be effective - you'd have to get that chilled saline in asap, and there'd only be a short period before cellular death occured due to lack of oxygen. cooling slows this down, but doesn't stop it.

sminch

hyperb0le · Jun 28, 2005, 02:17 AM

I saw a video from Soviet-era Russia of some Soviet doctors doing exactly this. I think in that video, however, they said that the dogs could only be dead for about half an hour.

I would not recommend that anyone search for this video. It leaves you with an indescribable sadness because you know that, because of some of the things the doctors did to the dogs while they were dead, some of those dogs wouldn't be able to live for more than a few hours or days

Randman · Jun 28, 2005, 02:51 AM

Cipher13 · Jun 28, 2005, 02:59 AM

Originally Posted by Cody Dawg

Just leave me dead, please.

You can count on me.

Warung · Jun 28, 2005, 03:37 AM

Kevin · Jun 28, 2005, 06:30 AM

Originally Posted by Eug Wanker

The first one of that series was great.

That one was so so.

Kevin · Jun 28, 2005, 06:31 AM

Originally Posted by sminch

i want to trust a news source that uses the term 'boffin'.

sminch

Hey. several boffin spies died to bring you this message.

Mastrap · Jun 28, 2005, 07:00 AM

Wouldn't this be classed as suspended animation rather than death?

vexborg · Jun 28, 2005, 07:04 AM

Originally Posted by jasonsRX7

I want to be called a boffin.

Just call me a Puffin

analogika · Jun 28, 2005, 07:12 AM

Originally Posted by KevinK

Hey. several boffin spies died to bring you this message.

Bovine spies?

moo the force be with you.

(i think i just hit rock bottom)

Kevin · Jun 28, 2005, 07:18 AM

Originally Posted by analogika

Bovine spies?

moo the force be with you.

(i think i just hit rock bottom)

Yes, but I chuckled non-the-less.

Eriamjh · Jun 28, 2005, 07:21 AM

Boffin' is a verb, not a noun!

"Why can't I move my arms?" - Wesley
"You've been mostly dead all day." - Fizzik

JHromadka · Jun 28, 2005, 10:25 AM

Millennium · Jun 28, 2005, 11:39 AM

In any case, this seems to have only been accomplished under very specific, artificially-induced conditions, and has no regenerative capabilities in and of itself. In other words, don't get your hopes of immortality or life extension up just yet.

Where this could be useful -assuming the freezing process can be done quickly enough- is in transporting severely injured people to a hospital for treatment (like the cryo-chambers in Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan universe). It might also be useful in certain types of surgeries, though not as many as one might initially believe since the circulatory system can't be disturbed for this to work.

wdlove · Jun 28, 2005, 11:43 AM

I'm quite skeptical of this one. If the dog died of some medical illness, replacing the blood wouldn't cure something like cancer.

Lava Lamp Freak · Jun 28, 2005, 11:45 AM

Originally Posted by Mastrap

Wouldn't this be classed as suspended animation rather than death?

Thats what I was thinking, but I guess it is still considered clinical death. Maybe this could be a technique to use for space travel.

Millennium · Jun 28, 2005, 04:01 PM

Originally Posted by Lava Lamp Freak

Thats what I was thinking, but I guess it is still considered clinical death.

So are heart attacks, actually; if you flatline, you're clinically dead.

Maybe this could be a technique to use for space travel.

Not in its current state, anyway; three hours just isn't really enough time to knock off of a journey. That said, it doesn't sound like they tried keeping the dogs dead for any longer than that, so it's possible that it may work for longer. The real question is, how long can it go?

Apparently, the dogs had no circulatory or brain activity, but what about cellular activity? Even a person dead by normal means still has some cellular activity going on, which is why hair and nails continue to grow. However, that's a double-edged sword; if there is still cellular activity going on, then cells can still die, and thus the body can't remain in a recoverable state for very long. If nothing else, starvation and/or dehydration would probably set in much more quickly than normal. The body can sacrifice itself piece by piece to keep the core alive as long as possible, but that requires the organ systems to be functioning properly; without that function each cell is basically on its own. End result: you probably couldn't keep a body in a recoverable state by more than a day or two using this technique. After that, cells all over the place would start dying.

In other words, as I mentioned before, this way of doing things really wouldn't be useful for much other than short-term transport. In order to be usable for long-term transport, it would have to completely stop cellular activity while ensuring that it could be restarted at a later date. Stopping cellular activity in something is as easy as dunking it in liquid nitrogen, but restarting it isn't something we've figured out yet, and this doesn't bring us any closer to that.

Kerrigan · Jun 28, 2005, 04:18 PM

Maybe Madonna should use this for her career.

Kerrigan · Jun 28, 2005, 04:19 PM

On a serious note, if this is tried on humans who have been dead for a long time, perhaps it will bring us solid evidence that there is no afterlife.

sminch · Jun 28, 2005, 04:26 PM

On a serious note, if this is tried on humans who have been dead for a long time, perhaps it will bring us solid evidence that there is no afterlife.

or that there is - haven't you seen 'flatliners'?

either way, i don't give a damn as long as milla jovovich makes an appearance.

sminch

Tito Puente · Jun 28, 2005, 04:33 PM

Wonder what the resurrected dog tastes like.

hmmmmm

nonhuman · Jun 28, 2005, 04:36 PM

Originally Posted by Kerrigan

On a serious note, if this is tried on humans who have been dead for a long time, perhaps it will bring us solid evidence that there is no afterlife.

Nah, just evidence that god can't be tricked so easily.

Kevin · Jun 28, 2005, 04:41 PM

Originally Posted by Kerrigan

On a serious note, if this is tried on humans who have been dead for a long time, perhaps it will bring us solid evidence that there is no afterlife.

Of course you'd have to prove that it was said person's soul that came back.

The bible is filled with stories about people not having control of their own bodies.

Tito Puente · Jun 28, 2005, 04:43 PM

Originally Posted by KevinK

The bible is filled with stories about people not having control of their own bodies.

Yeah, Noah shagging his daughter (I think). No control that man. What was wrong with Mrs. Noah?

Eriamjh · Jun 28, 2005, 05:03 PM

Originally Posted by Kerrigan

On a serious note, if this is tried on humans who have been dead for a long time, perhaps it will bring us solid evidence that there is no afterlife.

Or evidence that proves one can't remember the afterlife...

turtle777 · Jun 28, 2005, 05:05 PM

Originally Posted by Tito Puente

Yeah, Noah shagging his daughter (I think). No control that man. What was wrong with Mrs. Noah?

That's not in MY bible. Definitely not NOAH ! It was Lot !

-t

Kevin · Jun 28, 2005, 05:07 PM

Originally Posted by turtle777

That's not in MY bible. Definitely not NOAH ! It was Lot !

Yeah both his daughters thought that they were the only one left on earth.

So they got their dad drunk and sexed him.

Better than Jerry Springer folks.

Tito Puente · Jun 28, 2005, 05:08 PM

Originally Posted by turtle777

That's not in MY bible. Definitely not NOAH ! It was Lot !

-t

I'm sure I read it in Sunday school... when I was a young 'un.

turtle777 · Jun 28, 2005, 05:09 PM

Originally Posted by KevinK

Yeah both his daughters thought that they were the only one left on earth. So they got their dad drunk and sexed him.

Better than Jerry Springer folks.

Where do these people get the idea from that they need to procreate ?

Let'em do their stuff and die, but not leave a legacy that repeats the same sh!t all over again

-t

turtle777 · Jun 28, 2005, 05:11 PM

Originally Posted by Tito Puente

I'm sure I read it in Sunday school... when I was a young 'un.

What do you mean ?
That you're sure you read about Noah having sex with his daugthers ?

You probably also believed back then that Santa Claus was real...

-t

Tito Puente · Jun 28, 2005, 05:13 PM

Originally Posted by turtle777

What do you mean ?
That you're sure you read about Noah having sex with his daugthers ?

You probably also believed back then that Santa Claus was real...

-t

Do NOT knock Santa!!! That's not even funny.

Noah - yes, I'm sure I read he rogered his daughter.