Hibernate to travel to another planet?

Scientists have discovered a brain switch that could potentially help future astronauts cross the boundaries of the solar system and explore Earth-like exoplanets.

Interstellar travel is a dream of humanity, especially when modern means of observation have allowed us to identify many exoplanets similar to Earth and which could be places where extraterrestrials await.

The technical obstacle appears difficult but is considered the easiest to overcome, against the backdrop of a number of human spacecraft that have reached the edge of the solar system, particularly NASA’s pair of Voyagers 1 and 2, which began to enter interstellar space.

A planet of Proxima Centauri, humanity’s dream destination

A planet of Proxima Centauri, humanity’s dream destination – (Photo: NASA)

But follow Scientific alert, Traveling 1 at current speed will take forever 73,000 years to succeed “Another solar system” The closest is Proxima Centauri, a star believed to contain an Earth-like planet. Even though speeds are dramatically increased in modern vehicles and we face the effects of cosmic radiation, The travel time is still too long for humans.

This is what scientists at the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology (SIAT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences are trying to solve: they want to create a “hibernation” state can help astronauts temporarily “time stopped” biologicallyallowing them to survive for many generations.

The shocking experiment first succeeded in animals and revealed “golden key”.

“Here we found activation of a subpopulation of frontal neurons optic chiasm (POA) by a chemical method that reliably induces hypothermia in both anesthetized and non-anesthetized monkeys. – wrote the researchers in an article published in the journal Innovation.

The experiment helps demonstrate that primates’ thermoregulatory centers can also receive a trigger to fall into a safe state of hibernation, which can help them resist cold temperatures and low oxygen levels.

Reduced body temperature causes metabolism to slow down to a minimum level, biological activities are just enough to prevent muscle atrophy.

The study was carried out on three Macaca fascicular monkeys, in which their brain function was carefully monitored using fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging). A synthetic drug called Clozapine N-oxide (CNO) used to induce hibernation.

If monkeys are anesthetized, CNO causes a decrease in core body temperature, thereby preventing external heating, demonstrating the role of POA in thermoregulation.

Awake monkeys showed better results, also hibernating like hypothermic mice. However, the monkeys showed increased heart rate and tremors, which scientists will need to address before proceeding with clinical trials.

However, this is the first evidence proving its feasibility Hypothermia creates an artificial state of hibernationis the first step in the journey to helping humans be capable of participating in interstellar travel.

Article source: NLD