CRYONICS UK

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By Tim Radford Science editor.

There has not been such a promise since the early Christians agreed on the Nicene creed. But that bastion of rationality, the New Scientist, is making the ultimate reader offer: a chance of resurrection after death.

The lucky reader in the magazine's promotion stunt will, its editors promise, have his or her body cryonically frozen and stored in a bath of liquid nitrogen at a temperature of -196deg. C, either indefinitely, or until such time as future technology can bring the dead back to life.

"It is the first time that any form of media, anywhere in the world, has attempted a circulation-boosting promotion of this nature - in essence, providing for a second chance of life rather than the inevitability of death," the magazine said, adding boast fully that it was a "media promotion to die for".

The prize is worth $28,000 ( £18,000). The catch is that the winner has to be pronounced legally dead before entering the great lottery of resurrection.

Once he or she has - to put it delicately - finally stopped reading New Scientist, the body would be prepared and then slowly cooled to an unimaginably low temperature at the Cryonics Institute of Michigan, US, and then held indefinitely in liquid nitrogen.

Sperm cells, embryos, viruses and bacteria have all been frozen and restored to life. Some species of frogs and fish routinely survive freezing winter temperatures and thaw in the spring. But large volumes of flesh and bone and brain and blood present more of a challenge.

"There is no decay process, no biological action below -196deg. C. The whole emphasis of cryonics is that you put yourself into deep freeze until technology has gained the expertise to bring you back," said Jeremy Webb, editor of New Scientist.

"There is a polarisation of views on this. There are people who think it is complete and utter rubbish, and there are people who can't wait to sign up. It depends what you want to do.

"There is a certain fascination about waking up hun dreds of years from now. That really fires some people up." The competition offer is to "get people talking about science".

There is an alternative to the prize of life after death: a trip to Hawaii. The lucky winner would instead visit a huge telescope at Mauna Kea on the island, said Dr Webb. "For those who think it's complete bunkum, they can go to Hawaii and look back millions of years by looking at the stars instead."

Sources: GUARDIAN 19/09/2002 P2