Article about DARPA Human Enhancement projects:
“[...] Darpa’s human-enhancement programs were looking promising. In February 2002, Darpa asked Congress for a new, $78 million-per-year push for research including ‘the development of biochemical materials for enhancement of performance.’ That was on top of $90 million to explore how ‘biological systems … adapt to wide extremes.’ The human being, a Darpa fact file proclaimed in April 2002, ‘is becoming the weakest link in Defense systems.’ [...]
Roth knew that some animals hibernate – slowing their metabolisms until environmental conditions improve. He also knew that some cells can enter a kind of dormancy and then spring back to life – essentially, they go into suspended animation. Roth wanted to better understand this ‘metabolic flexibility.’ He started testing various chemicals that slowed metabolism, like heavy water and tetrodotoxin (puffer fish poison, used in Haiti to turn people into zombies). Nothing worked. But then Roth found a loophole in one of nature’s seemingly absolute rules: Animals need oxygen. But some creatures, like nematodes, fruit flies, and zebra fish, don’t die if oxygen levels drop. Instead the critters suspend. Their hearts stop beating for up to 24 hours. They don’t breathe. And they don’t die. Wounds stop bleeding; nearly any injury becomes survivable, and the brain shuts down without damage. ‘If you were shot, this is exactly what you would want,’ Roth says. [...]
Source: Wired
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