Science and Technology – Sleeping during the trip to Mars. Scientists have successfully tested artificial hibernation for the first time

Scientists managed to put rodents into a state of artificial suspended animation, which in nature never hibernates. Persons can have the same hidden feature, activating anyone who can also be presented in the same status. This will help solve the problems of deep space flight, which could take years, he writes. Watchman.

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In some science fiction movies and books, space travelers go into hibernation to survive a long space flight. According to modern scientific concepts, it could take years and even decades to fly to the nearest stars. But, if the person is in artificial suspended animation, this flight can be transferred much more easily.

Scientists at Washington University in St. Lewis, USA, conducted a unique experiment on rodents and found that artificial hibernation can occur in animals that do not naturally fall into suspended animation.

Scientists have discovered neurons in a region of the brain of rodents, specifically mice and rats, called the preoptic area of ​​the hypothalamus, and found that they are involved in regulating body temperature and metabolism during suspended animation. As the study showed, these neurons can be activated by ultrasound, causing the rodents to enter an artificial hibernation state.

When the scientists stimulated special neurons in the brains of the mice, their body temperature dropped by about 3 degrees Celsius. In addition, these rodents changed their metabolism and slowed down the heart by almost half. The constant supply of ultrasound signals to the rat brain made it possible to keep them in a state of artificial suspended animation during the day. When the experiment was over, all of the mice had woken up.

Then, the same experiment was done on mice, but their body temperature decreased by 1 degree Celsius, but there were also changes in metabolism and heartbeat, which caused the animals to hibernate as well.

Scientists consider their results a real scientific breakthrough and now want to conduct studies on large animals. The study authors believe that similar neurons are also hidden in the human brain, which can be stimulated with ultrasound to induce artificial suspended animation.

According to Hong Chen of Washington University in St. Lewis, future astronauts will be able to wear special devices on their heads to influence the hypothalamus of the brain. It can also lead to lower body temperature, a slower metabolism and a slower heartbeat. As a result, the astronauts will be able to enter a state of artificial suspended animation. The same device that sends other signals to the brain will bring them out of this state.

According to Martin Jastruch, of Stockholm University, Sweden, who was not involved in the trial, the chances of such technology being applied to humans are very high. The scientist believes there is a possibility that the human brain, after hundreds of thousands of years of evolution, has retained a feature that was responsible for the transition to hibernation.

to focus He already wrote that there is a big difference between the concepts of space and deep space.

also to focus He wrote that Earth had received a strange signal from Mars and anyone could try to decipher it.