Last night's episode of The Middleman did not disappoint, easily being one of the best episodes of the season. In a clever riff on the Austin Powers concept, Kevin Sorbo guest starred as a Middleman placed in suspended animation in 1969, brought back to life once it is surmised his arch-nemesis has returned. Amidst an ever-escalating spoof of 60s spy movies, the current Middleman and his sardonic sidekick Wendy Watson must work with the 1969 Middleman to save the world.
Freezing someone in order to revive them later is a common idea in science fiction. And it's probably one of the areas where people are trying their hardest to turn science fiction into science fact.
Usually referred to as cryogenics, but more accurately described as cryonics, the appeal of this technology is obvious: a recently-dead or dying person could be frozen until such time as medical science discovers the fountain of youth and works out how to revive decades- or centuries-old carefully preserved corpses. And indeed, the first part of the equation may already have become reality. Companies such as Alcor will chill recently deceased (ideally within 15 minutes of death) individuals to temperatures below 180 degrees Fahrenheit. However, it is not known what affect this process would have on a subject's mind, and there is no currently known way to revive a patient—and there may never be. Still that hasn't stopped a lot of people from taking the chance—nearly 80 people are already stored in Alcor's vaults (and for the record, it's a gamble I'd be willing to take too, but unless the cost of living gets a lot cheaper, the starting price of $80,000 to preserve just my head is a truly fictional sum of money for me to stump up, even with clever financing options.)
On a less ambitious scale, people have been revived after lethal exposure to cold (the timescale here is tens of minutes, not years). And as DISCOVER reported last year, suspended-animation researchers have revived dogs that were clinically dead for as long as three hours. The immediate practical application here that the scientists are looking at is for trauma victims. Sometimes people receive injuries which could be surgically repaired in theory, but in practice it just takes too long to transport the patient to a hospital and then conduct a complex operation. The hope is that these people could be placed in suspended animation at the scene of the injury, and then operated upon in a relatively leisurely fashion. Clinical trials are currently being designed, but it will probably be many years before this becomes anything like a commonplace therapy. Until then, you can spend some of your time rooting for The Powers That Be to order a second season of The Middleman.
