terratogen wrote:
The basic procedure worked like this:

1. Obtain desired number of Golden Hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus).

2. Place in ice bath at temperature -5°C.

3. Leave hapless rodents to cool until hearts have stopped beating, respiration has ceased, animals are frozen rigid and are-– by any conventional definition of life– no longer alive.

4. After 60-90 minutes, remove hamsters from ice bath.

5. If required, cut sections of one or more control animals to determine degree of freezing. Please note– animals thus examined should not be used in subsequent reanimation attempts.

6. Warm the hearts of the frozen hamsters until they start up again, followed by gentle re-warming of the rest of the animal(s) until miraculous recovery occurs.

7. Determine number of survivors.

Serves 5.

I want to put that list on random people's refrigerators.

An interesting read.

This article isn't too clear, but I seriously doubt they successfully reanimated a truly frozen hampster. If the water inside the hampster freezes, it breaks the cell membranes, creating hampster mush. A simple example involves placing fresh strawberries in a zip lock bag and then freezing them. Take the frozen berries out, allow them to thaw a bit, and you've got an awesome spread for toast.

Cryonicists have fluids that they have successfully injected into people that enable them to freeze those people without destroying their cells. Their hope is that through some as yet uninvented technology those people's memories can be restored, either into a machine, or a vat grown body, or maybe the original body could be restored around them with nanotechnology. Its a long shot, but death is certain. In my view, any option which is less certain than death may be worth a shot. However, I have yet to bite the bullet and buy the requisite life insurance policies. Its not cheap. Most of my friends think I'm crazy for contemplating this.

RE: Damn Interesting » Reanimated Rodents and The Meaning of Life