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Cryonics
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<p>Cryonics is the <a href="/facts/Cryopreservation/BzXTP1hl">low-temperature freezing</a> (usually at −196 °C or −320.8 °F or 77.1 K) and storage of human remains in the hope that <a href="/facts/Resurrection/XQCQqA0M">resurrection</a> may be possible in the future. Cryonics is regarded with <a href="/facts/Skepticism/qXAgbbVT">skepticism</a> by the mainstream <a href="/facts/Scientific_community/0YIPcVzE">scientific community</a>. It is generally viewed as a <a href="/facts/Pseudoscience/kdNzoLeS">pseudoscience</a>, and its practice has been characterized as <a href="/facts/Quackery/CA5N20JR">quackery</a>. </p><p>Cryonics procedures can begin only after the "patients" are <a href="/facts/Clinical_death/YdBk59zu">clinically</a> and <a href="/facts/Legal_death/sUSe3H7j">legally dead</a>. Procedures may begin within minutes of death, and use <a href="/facts/Cryoprotectant/GyVLs8CN">cryoprotectants</a> to try to prevent ice formation during cryopreservation.[<i>better source needed</i>] It is not possible to reanimate a corpse that has undergone <a href="/facts/Cryopreservation/BzXTP1hl">vitrification</a>, as this damages the brain, including its <a href="/facts/Neural_circuits/pgngqMLf">neural circuits</a>. The first corpse to be frozen was that of <a href="/facts/James_Bedford/tmT2UkBy">James Bedford</a>, in 1967. As of 2014, remains from about 250 bodies had been cryopreserved in the <a href="/facts/United_States/P0sCdLe5">United States</a>, and 1,500 people had made arrangements for cryopreservation of theirs. </p><p>Even if the resurrection promised by cryonics were possible, economic considerations make it unlikely cryonics corporations could remain in business long enough to deliver. The "patients", being dead, cannot continue to pay for their own preservation. Early attempts at cryonic preservation were made in the 1960s and early 1970s; most relied on family members to pay for the preservation and ended in failure, with all but one of the corpses cryopreserved before 1973 being thawed and disposed of. </p>