IF YOU are in the northern hemisphere right now, you may well be channelling your inner bear as the colder months approach and life slows down. You leave your home less often, sleep more and perhaps develop some extra padding. Equally, you may be emerging from the cold spell in the southern hemisphere with renewed energy and the joys of spring.
What you might not realise is that this propensity to hunker down in winter could be a relic of our evolutionary past, as we discuss on page 46, and if scientists have their way, humans may once again be bestowed with the ability to hibernate 鈥� or at least mimic some of the effects of hibernation 鈥� to benefit our health and possibly allow long trips through space.
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That might sound fanciful, but the truth is that a type of human hibernation is already being used in an attempt to save lives. Back in 2019, we broke the news that at least one patient with acute trauma such as a stab wound or gunshot had been placed in a state of 鈥渟uspended animation鈥�, a holding pattern somewhere between life and death. Doctors at a Maryland hospital had achieved this by replacing the blood with a cold saline solution, cooling the body and slowing all internal processes, just like true hibernation. This astonishing technique afforded doctors hours rather than minutes for potentially life-saving surgery.
If the results of a trial on the technique 鈥� expected next year 鈥� are positive, there will no doubt be some questions over its use. How long could, or should, we place people in limbo for? Will it be acceptable to the public, and for what uses?
Tricky questions, but not impossible. In the 1960s, the idea of transplanting hearts provoked similar squeamishness and incredulity. But the thousands of heart transplants now carried out each year worldwide should show us that even the most outlandish ideas are worth investigating. Indeed, just like heart transplants, a positive outcome from the suspended animation trials may mark a fundamental turning point in the future of medicine 鈥� here on Earth, and beyond.
