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 Posted: Tue May 08, 2007 7:48 pm
i have heard rumors of scientist being able to re-abilitate cells. ive also heard that some people seem to "come back" after they "pass away". this brings me to this question........if the body is nothing more than a mere battery, could it be re-charged when it dies?
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Posted: Tue May 08, 2007 7:58 pm
Zanigata i have heard rumors of scientist being able to re-abilitate cells. ive also heard that some people seem to "come back" after they "pass away". this brings me to this question........if the body is nothing more than a mere battery, could it be re-charged when it dies? There is such thing as suspended animation, but that's very different than being able to come back from being dead which is not possible after a very short time.
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Posted: Tue May 08, 2007 8:17 pm
I think once you are dead you are dead (with the exception of near death experiences).
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Posted: Wed May 09, 2007 1:19 am
It really depends on the time scale involved. Different parts of the body die at different times. You've heard of brain death, right? That happens a few minutes after the heart stops beating. And apparently hair and fingernails continue to grow for a while after death. So it's actually really hard to declare someone's time of death, when some parts are still kinda alive.
The point of all this is that cells need fuel, water and oxygen to live. If the flow of these essential things is stopped, like when your heart stops beating, cells start to die. If the heart is re-started within a few minutes, the cellular damage will be minimal, and there is usually no long-term effects. But if the down-time is too long and too many cells die then vital parts of the body, like the brain, are too badly damaged to work properly or at all. No amount of electric shocks or pumping blood through dead tissue will re-animate it, unless perhaps the tissue has been preserved in some way that doesn't damage the cells themselves.
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Posted: Wed May 09, 2007 3:54 am
Well, it all depends on how you define death. The body has a couple of critical organs that you can not live without, but it is kind of unclear at what point after they are irreparably damaged, you die.
1. The heart keeps blood pumping through your body, your blood delivers nutrients and oxygen to the cells all over your body. People have been revived after having their hearts stop, but if the heart is out for too long (more than a few minutes I think) other vital organs (like the brain) suffer from lack of and begin to die.
2. The Brain is the other really big one. Significant portions of the brain can be damaged beyond repair and the body can still continue vital functions, but the person can never really recover (they are basically in a permanent coma, no cases of recover exists to the best of my knowledge, this is refered to as being brain dead, or sometimes in a persistent vegetative state (although that is a broader term and could refer to other things as well)).
As long as the brain has enough oxygen to continue functioning there is appearently still awareness. There are many reports from the French Revolution of severed heads blinking or reacting to stimulus after being decapitated.
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Posted: Wed May 09, 2007 12:29 pm
Hair and fingernails do not continue to grow once you are dead. This is an urban legend. It appears when looking at a corpse that this happens but it is really due to the dehydration of the dead body. The skin shrinks up and pulls away from the hair and nails giving the appearance of growth. Hair & Nails Urban Legend
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Posted: Wed May 09, 2007 5:54 pm
so....the dead can rise,its just that the major organs cannot be damaged in any way.......am i right?
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Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 1:18 am
kitten22481 Hair and fingernails do not continue to grow once you are dead. This is an urban legend. It appears when looking at a corpse that this happens but it is really due to the dehydration of the dead body. The skin shrinks up and pulls away from the hair and nails giving the appearance of growth. Hair & Nails Urban LegendOh. Sorry. Thanks for the heads-up.
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Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 1:25 am
Zanigata so....the dead can rise,its just that the major organs cannot be damaged in any way.......am i right? I think you need to define "dead". If lack of a pulse = dead, then the answer to your question is yes, because CPR or a defribulator (sp?) can restart your heart (if applied quickly). Otherwise, I think the answer is no. Cellular degradation starts pretty quickly after loss of blood pressure, I think.
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Posted: Thu May 31, 2007 7:41 am
From what I know about human anatomy, the brain can only last two minutes without oxygen. (I think that's what I heard. If anyone finds this statement incorrect please tell me.)
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Posted: Thu May 31, 2007 9:55 am
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Posted: Sat Jun 16, 2007 8:11 am
I agree with what Worm of Morgoth said, "It depends on the time scale." Certain proteins degrade over time - I'm not sure which has the shortest life span - and need to be constantly replaced in order to keep cells alive. This is one aspect of homeostasis, which is one of the key definitions of life. If a body has been dead for too long, then pumping energy into it won't help because the cells will lack these critical proteins. There may be other cellular degradation as well. Perhaps when we perfect nanotechnology we can repair cells and even protein molecules to raise the dead - but that sounds like science fistion and is definitely a thing of the future - if ever.
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Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2007 3:18 pm
On the other hand, some species can withstand being entirely dehydrated, for several months. Then you just add water and they're back to normal.
Humans are rather fragile, internal-environmentally speaking.
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Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2007 2:50 pm
If the heart just stopped, or an artery is clogged, you can make them live again. If tissue is damaged, it might be possible, but it would take a long time.
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Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 6:54 pm
but then u actually have to define alive.
Is that ur organs functioning or do u have to be consious.
and then u have to define consious, a thing all scientests have been avoiding for years.
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