Crashes, No Sound, or Screen Glitches?
Random freezes, missing sound and display glitches usually trace back to one bad driver. Find and replace yours safely.Free scan · under a minutePC Slower Than It Used to Be?
A free scan shows the junk files, broken settings and background clutter dragging Windows down - then fixes them in one click.Free scan · Windows 10 & 11Some links on this page are affiliate links: if you buy through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you.
No: there is no technology that can freeze a living human and later wake them like Han Solo. The nearest real-world practice is cryonics: preserving a person only after legal death, in the hope that future medicine might one day restore them. No human has been revived from cryonic storage. Meanwhile, researchers have made a notable but much narrower advance: preserving and successfully transplanting vitrified rat kidneys.
In Star Wars, Han Solo is sealed in fictional carbonite while alive, transported, then released apparently intact. That is a useful image, but not a description of a real technology. Today’s cryonics does not put living people into suspended animation. It begins after legal death, involves invasive procedures and chemical risks, and has no demonstrated method of revival.
There are three distinct ideas that headlines sometimes blur:
- Living human suspended animation: a reversible slowing of life processes. It is not available as a way to store a healthy person for later awakening.
- Human cryonics: experimental post-mortem preservation intended as a wager on future medicine. Revival has not been demonstrated.
- Biological cryopreservation: established for some cells and other small biological materials, with organ preservation an active area of research. Results in an organ are not evidence that a human being can be restored.
“Carbonite” is a metaphor here, not a scientific material. The real questions are what can be preserved, how much damage occurs, and whether preservation could ever be reversed.
What cryonics means—and what it does not
Cryogenics is the broader science and engineering of very low temperatures. Cryopreservation means preserving cells, tissues, organs, or organisms at low temperatures. Vitrification is a method intended to cool material into a glass-like state while avoiding damaging ice crystals. Cryonics refers to experimental preservation of legally dead humans or animals in the hope that future technology may restore them. It is not currently reversible or a clinically proven treatment, as Alcor’s explanation of cryonics and related terms also makes clear.
Nor is cryonics the same as suspended animation. That phrase generally means temporarily and reversibly reducing biological activity in a living organism. Current human cryonics starts after death has been legally declared.
How a cryonics procedure works
Details vary by provider and case. Alcor’s published procedure illustrates the broad sequence:
- Legal death is declared. Preservation does not begin as a living medical procedure.
- Stabilization and cooling begin. The team attempts to limit deterioration caused by the loss of circulation. The time between death and stabilization matters: low blood flow and the circumstances of death can already have injured tissues.
- The body is prepared for perfusion. The provider uses medical and surgical procedures to circulate preservation chemicals through the vascular system.
- Cryoprotectant is introduced. Alcor says its cryoprotectant is circulated near 0 °C over several hours and replaces more than half of the water inside cells. The chemicals lower the tendency of water to form ice, but they can also be toxic.
- The patient is cooled for long-term storage. Providers aim for vitrification rather than ordinary freezing, then store patients in liquid nitrogen. Alcor lists a long-term storage temperature of about −196 °C (−320 °F).
See Alcor’s procedure description for its account of the steps. The process is invasive and depends on preparation, timing, perfusion and transport; it is not simply a matter of putting a body in a very cold container.
Why ordinary freezing is damaging
Most of the body is water. As water freezes, ice crystals can damage cell membranes and disrupt the structure of tissues. Large organs pose an additional engineering problem: cooling and warming must reach the whole organ without dangerous differences between its surface and interior.
Vitrification tries to reduce ice formation by using concentrated cryoprotectants and carefully controlled cooling. But “vitrified” does not mean unharmed. Cryoprotectants can damage cells; the interruption of blood flow can injure tissue; and temperature changes can create stress. During warming, ice can recrystallize, and uneven heating can create damaging temperature gradients or cracks. A glass-like state is a preservation goal, not proof that a body can later function.
The rat-kidney result: a real advance, not human revival
A significant result published in Nature Communications in 2023 demonstrates why organ preservation is a serious research field, while also showing how much narrower the evidence is than a “human carbonite” claim suggests.
Quick wins for a faster PC:
Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Researchers vitrified rat kidneys using a cryoprotective solution and iron-oxide nanoparticles, stored them at −150 °C for as long as 100 days, then rewarmed them with an alternating magnetic field. The field heated the nanoparticles distributed through the organ, rather than relying only on heat applied at the surface. After transplantation, the kidneys supported the lives of rats whose own kidneys had been removed during the study’s 30-day follow-up. Kidney function was initially impaired and took roughly two to three weeks to normalize.
Rank #3
The study’s methods and results matter because a bank of preserved organs could, in principle, give transplant teams more flexibility in matching donors and recipients, transport, and scheduling. The result addresses a major obstacle: rewarming an organ quickly and evenly enough to limit damage. The study reported a warming rate of roughly 72 °C per minute near the kidney in its particular experimental setup. That number is not a general capability for human organs or bodies.
Most importantly, the experiment used rat kidneys. It did not preserve a whole animal, a human brain, memories, or identity, and it did not revive a cryonics patient. The authors discuss possible relevance to future organ banking; scaling the technique to human organs remains a research challenge, not a demonstrated clinical service.
Why preserving an organ is not preserving a person
A kidney’s job can be assessed through measurable functions after transplantation. A person’s revival would require far more: coordinated recovery of the brain and every essential organ, repair of damage caused by the original disease or death, management of cryoprotectant toxicity, and safe rewarming throughout a much larger body.
For cryonics to lead to revival, future technology would have to address several separate problems:
- repair damage from the period without normal blood flow before preservation;
- reverse or mitigate chemical, cellular, vascular and mechanical damage from the preservation process;
- warm the body uniformly without cracking or harmful ice formation;
- restore functioning across the brain and other organs, and treat the illness that caused death;
- determine whether the neural structures encoding memories and personality remain intact enough to recover.
Preserving anatomy is not the same as demonstrating that a person’s memories, personality or subjective continuity can be recovered. The idea that a preserved brain might retain enough information for future restoration is a rationale used in cryonics, not an established medical result. It is not known whether future medicine could repair the damage, let alone restore the same person.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What people can arrange today
Several organizations offer preservation services. They are selling experimental preservation, not a proven way to return someone to life. Provider descriptions and prices are claims by the organizations, can change, and should be checked directly before making a decision.
| Provider | Published service details | Important qualifications |
|---|---|---|
| Alcor | Offers whole-body cryopreservation and neuropreservation, with stabilization, perfusion, controlled cooling and liquid-nitrogen storage. Its public fact sheet lists prices of $220,000 for whole-body preservation and $80,000 for neuropreservation. | Confirm current fees and what they include. Membership, funding, insurance, transport and case-specific costs may be separate. Its provider comparison is Alcor’s own comparison, with its own category definitions. |
| Cryonics Institute (CI) | Offers full-body preservation and storage in Michigan. Its public page lists $28,000 for human preservation with lifetime membership and $35,000 with annual membership; membership charges are listed separately. | CI says standby and transport are not included in its base price and can be arranged through Suspended Animation, Inc. See its getting-started information and confirm current terms. |
| Tomorrow.bio | Its U.S. page lists whole-body preservation at $220,000 for members and $250,000 for non-members, and brain-only preservation at $80,000 and $110,000, respectively. Membership is listed from $55 per month, $550 per year or $15,000 lifetime. | The organization describes field cryoprotection, Swiss storage and U.S. availability. Coverage, response time, contract terms and current prices should be confirmed directly; published prices are not independent evidence of effectiveness. |
These prices are not necessarily comparable total costs. Depending on the provider and circumstances, a reader may also need to account for standby, transport, membership, insurance premiums, legal arrangements, funeral-home coordination and difficult logistics. For example, distance from a response team, hospital access, an autopsy, severe trauma or a long delay after death can affect both practical arrangements and preservation quality. A base price alone does not tell a prospective member what service can be delivered in their location.
The Tool Desk
Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Whole-body preservation retains more anatomy but leaves the future challenge of restoring every system. Neuropreservation focuses on the brain or head and rests on the assumption that future medicine could supply or regenerate a body. Neither option has demonstrated revival, and preserving a brain does not resolve the identity question.
Anyone considering a contract should ask what is included; who performs standby, transport and perfusion; how quickly the organization can respond where they live; where and how patients are stored; how long-term care is funded; which tasks are subcontracted; and what happens if the provider or its arrangements change. Also ask what documents, insurance and estate plans are needed, and what happens if death occurs abroad or the family disputes the arrangements. Provider comparisons may use different definitions, so check the underlying contract rather than treating a comparison chart as an independent scientific ranking.
So, could humans be frozen like Han Solo?
Not in the sense the film suggests. Scientists can preserve some biological materials, and a 2023 experiment showed that vitrified rat kidneys could be stored, rewarmed and transplanted with life-sustaining function in rats over a limited follow-up. That is meaningful progress for organ banking. Human cryonics is a different and much more speculative practice: post-mortem preservation with no clinically demonstrated human revival.
There is no basis for saying future revival is impossible, but it is technologically incomplete and unavailable today. “Real-world carbonite” works only as a loose metaphor—not as a description of a living person being safely frozen and awakened later.
Recommended Free Tools
Quick Recap
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
