9 New Technologies That Are A Sci-Fi Fan's Wet Dream

9. Cryonics

The idea of being able to harmlessly freeze and thaw a human has been hanging around for decades now, with little success, but researchers from 21st Century Medicine (21CM) have just taken another big step towards making it a reality.

The scientists are claiming to have made a major breakthrough by successfully freezing a rabbit's brain and then recovering it again with no apparent damage. This is the first time this has been done to a mammal.

The problem with freezing brains is that the expansion of water can cause damage to the cell walls and irreversibly destroy the vital structures. Think about how squishy certain fruits go when you freeze and thaw them and you'll have a good idea of the disastrous effects on the brain.

This time, the rabbit brain was filled with chemicals that allowed it to be frozen to -135C and thawed again whilst keeping cell membranes and neural connections intact. This perfectly preserved everything that scientists think are essential to memory and learning.

The technique is not intended to preserve a brain that can be used in its original form, but preserve the information required to create an exact replica of it in the future, with all of its old memories and skills.