Looks like Necromancy's got competition...
Posted: Mon Dec 09, 2013 5:12 am
Watching Game Theory, I came across an interesting tidbit: it's theoretically possible to bring a dead person back to life (structural integrity required) by using special solvents to more or less "bleach" the corpse clean of all its dead cellular matter. Once you're left with a blank human-shaped collagen base, boom. Stem cell injections everywhere. They've tried it on pig hearts and managed to have the organs start beating autonomously four days postmortem.
Stem cells being basically blank body part templates, they conformed to the environment they'd been injected in - effectively repairing the damaged organs. Earlier attempts in the thirties by Russian scientists involved dogs, some cases even turning out with canines that felt rejuvenated, compared to their pre-death selves.
Of course, nothing's exactly perfect. Brain damage was also recorded in some specimens, resulting in something that's closer to a voodoo zombie dog. A human equivalent would be a severely taxed and mentally challenged person.
I'm reminded of Mass Effect 2's Lazarus Project...
Could this mean that in the Hopeverse, death is a little less final than we'd assume? Unless, of course, you're talking about death by ebulism (cold-boiling in the vacuum of space) or, you know, getting your head blown off by a high-poowered rifle. 'Cuz that's pretty final, as far as deaths go.
Stem cells being basically blank body part templates, they conformed to the environment they'd been injected in - effectively repairing the damaged organs. Earlier attempts in the thirties by Russian scientists involved dogs, some cases even turning out with canines that felt rejuvenated, compared to their pre-death selves.
Of course, nothing's exactly perfect. Brain damage was also recorded in some specimens, resulting in something that's closer to a voodoo zombie dog. A human equivalent would be a severely taxed and mentally challenged person.
I'm reminded of Mass Effect 2's Lazarus Project...
Could this mean that in the Hopeverse, death is a little less final than we'd assume? Unless, of course, you're talking about death by ebulism (cold-boiling in the vacuum of space) or, you know, getting your head blown off by a high-poowered rifle. 'Cuz that's pretty final, as far as deaths go.