Animated comedy Futurama has turned cryonics into a running gag, with the frozen head of disgraced, and now dead, US President Richard Nixon getting most of the punchlines. Source: Supplied
A CRYONICS company is looking for a place to store the bodies of Australians who believe future generations will be able to bring them back to life.
Not-for-profit company Stasis Systems Australia is celebrating a key milestone of 10 investors, each paying $50,000 for the privilege of having their body stored when they die.
Now the company is looking for a suitable location to build their super-cool facility, possibly in South Australia or New South Wales.
Co-founder Mark Milton said he had been talking to both SA Health and the NSW Health Department and had received a sympathetic and supportive hearing.
More than 250 people have been cryonically preserved around the world, and close to 2000 more have signed contracts with overseas providers, he said.
Their optimism is still a long way from becoming reality, because scientists can so far only freeze and then revive single cells - not whole organs and certainly not whole people.
And Australians interested in cryopreservation were at a distinct disadvantage, having to travel overseas when sick or risk having the procedure done here and then "thawing out" on the way over.
"The logistical reason more than anything else is what prompted me to get together with Peter Tsolakides, who is the other founder, to get together and try and figure out whether it was feasible," Mr Milton said.
Cryobiology expert Dr Stephen Livesey, a senior researcher at St Vincent's hospital in Melbourne, said he hadn't heard of Stasis Systems.
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