uncaged-revealed: (natural) human torpor
- Paper number
IAC-17,A1,7,11,x39313
- Year
2017
- Abstract
Metabolic down-regulation is an ancient, back-up life-support strategy that is common \& found everywhere, serving numerous diverse creatures. Widespread in mammals, termed torpor. Torpor expresses in response to threatened or compromised metabolic pathways of: oxygen, water, nutrients, temperature, light, reproduction, \&/or waste-management. Torpor confers profound \& sophisticated (bet-hedging) prophylactic \& therapeutic protection. It can effectively cope, albeit to varying degrees, with a seriously impressive long-list of threats, e.g., hypoxia, asphyxia, decompression, dehydration, starvation, obesity, hypothermia, hyperthermia, ionizing-radiation, darkness, traumatic-injury (e.g., brain, spinal-cord, muscle, etc.), scarring, blood-loss, shock, ischemia-reperfusion injury (e.g., cardioprotection), inflammation, (e.g., viral, bacterial, etc.) infection/pathogenesis, toxins/poisons, cancer-metastasis, disuse-atrophy, degenerative-wear \& -clutter, accelerated/premature ageing, brief life-span, confinement /& seclusion; \& even long-distance travel (e.g., migrating hummingbirds). As such torpor tantamounts to a body-shield with sci-fi-like 'superpowers' for dealing with extremely broad-spectrum of seriously bad-agents. These are the very types of intractable health \& performance problems that humans venturing into deep-space will face. Torpor, credibly seems like that gateway technology to resolve many of these serious challenges, undoubtedly fast-tracking, even outright enabling deep-space ambitions. Aside forementioned biomedical benefits, torpor would obviate the need to eat, drink, \& exercise; it is near-self-sufficient. Oxygen, habitat-size, \& radiation-shielding needs could be near-order-of-magnitude-reduced, plummeting life-support launch-costs. Furthermore, because torpor slows metabolic-rate, perceived travel-time would correspondingly contract, even collapse, i.e., suspended-animation with time-jumping. The unmatched protection \& endurance conferred by biological time-dilation might permit Mars transfer-trajectories otherwise deemed too exposing but that could outright-enable such capabilities; broaden launch-windows; relax architectural, engineering \& operational constraints; reduce risks \& costs; \&, affordably-sustain mission-frequencies. However, despite voluminous research on this animal marvel \&, moreover, broad-spectrum expression by several (tropical-jungle) primates, including an archetypical-form – (half-year-long-plus) deep hibernation – awakening this dormant biomedical capability in humans, naturally, let alone full-blown, on-demand \& ultra-fast, i.e., for truly effective space-travel/exploration, remains a four-centuries-longstanding-elusive grand-challenge. This holy-grail is made all the more difficult because no `dimmer-switch' nor `trigger' has ever been frank-identified in any even consummate torpid critter, i.e., complete enigma. Unveiled here, unequivocal evidence of a latent, natural human torpor capability, in several (Australian) extremophiles. This phenomenal, routinely relied upon latent capability is expressible on-demand, nocturnally, \& emergency-like: fast-\&-deep. Described, a constellation of classic, say, `shining-star' animal-like physiological hallmarks, necessarily including metabolic-rate depression, to below the normal basal rate; extensive, spontaneous body-cooling, including, notably brain-cooling. Present R\&D investigations are focused on determining ultimate metabolic \& temperature depth- \& time-limits.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-17,A1,7,11,x39313.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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