W: It’s well-known science fiction plot to freeze a body and bring it back to life years later.
However, this may no longer be so far from the truth. Joining us from our Cardiff studio is Professor Andrew Morgan, who’s been doing some research into this subject. Professor Morgan.
M: Yes, well, I’ve been looking into the ability of certain animals to freeze themselves for a certain amount of time, and then to come back to life when the circumstances around them change. And, what I’ve been working on over the past two years is the particular process that enables them to do this.
W: What have you actually discovered
M: I think it’s a particular chemical in the animals’ bodies which begins to work under certain circumstances. And I’m now experimenting with this chemical to see if I can get other animals that wouldn’t normally be able to freeze themselves to be able to do this.
W: Have you had any success
M: I have so far. It’s been going very well. And I’m reasonably confident that perhaps within ten years from now I’ll be able to freeze human beings for as long or as short a time as I would like to, and then bring them back to life again in exactly the same state that they were in before they were frozen…just as you can do with animals.
W: And what’s the main application of your research
M: I think the main application of this for human beings would be for people with terminal illnesses, such as certain types of cancer, AIDS. We could freeze them, find a cure for the illness and then bring them back to life again and administer the cure.
W: I see. Well, this obviously is going to create great debate I would think as to the rights and wrongs of whether we should be actually doing this.