Tomorrow.Bio, a cryonics start-up, offers the possibility of a second life for the cost of a sports car. Is this vision of cryogenics realistic, or is it still an unattainable dream?
Cryonics in Action: Freezing for the Future
In central Berlin, a small ambulance marked with an orange stripe houses equipment from Tomorrow.Bio, Europe’s first cryonics lab. The company’s mission is to freeze patients after death and eventually revive them. This process costs $200,000 (£165,000).
Emil Kendziorra, co-founder and former cancer researcher, leads the team. He shifted careers, frustrated by the slow pace of progress in curing cancer. Tomorrow.Bio’s operations include freezing three or four people and five pets so far, with nearly 700 others signed up. By 2025, the company plans to expand across the U.S.
Cryopreservation involves cooling bodies to sub-zero temperatures and replacing water with cryoprotective fluids. “Freezing without preserving would destroy tissue,” Kendziorra explains. The process uses dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and ethylene glycol to avoid ice crystal damage. Bodies are cooled to -196°C before transfer to a Swiss storage facility.
The ultimate goal is future medical advancements that cure the original cause of death and reverse cryopreservation damage. “The timeline could be 50, 100, or 1,000 years,” Kendziorra says, emphasizing the preservation’s indefinite timeframe.
Skepticism and Scientific Debate
Critics, like neuroscience professor Clive Coen, argue that cryonics misunderstands biology and physics. Decomposition begins immediately after death, which cryopreservation doesn’t halt. Warming a body may trigger renewed decomposition, making revival implausible.
Advances in related fields offer some hope. For instance, rat kidneys have been cryogenically preserved and successfully transplanted. Small organisms like C. elegans roundworms have been revived after cryopreservation. However, translating such results to humans remains a distant challenge.
Tomorrow.Bio is inspired by examples like Anna Bagenholm, who survived being clinically dead for two hours in freezing conditions. Kendziorra believes public skepticism reflects the novelty of the concept. “Organ transplantation once seemed absurd but is now routine,” he notes.
Ethical and Practical Challenges
Cryonics faces ethical dilemmas and logistical issues. Tomorrow.Bio stores bodies at a non-profit foundation in Switzerland, promising protection. Yet, managing preserved bodies over centuries raises concerns about inheritance and societal impact.
Financial barriers also limit accessibility. Kendziorra argues for personal choice, comparing the cost to luxury purchases. Most clients are under 60, funding cryonics through life insurance. For Louise Harrison, 51, cryonics offers a chance at the future. “It’s like time travel,” she says, undeterred by losing connections from her current life.
Tomorrow.Bio aims to preserve memory, identity, and personality within a year and achieve reversible preservation by 2028. Kendziorra acknowledges uncertainties but highlights the greater odds of cryonics compared to cremation.
The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened awareness of mortality, sparking interest in life extension. Cryonics may remain controversial, but for some, it symbolizes hope—a gamble on a second chance at life.