Sewer gas could make suspended animation a reality

You know all those movies where space travelers are asleep and don’t age a bit while they fly around the galaxy? They’re in suspended animation, and it turns out that this state may actually be possible.

We don’t know how, but scientists discovered that small doses of hydrogen sulfide (found in sewer gas) put lab mice into a state of metabolic suppression within minutes. The mice were able to return to normal within 30 minutes of being able to breathe regular air again.

The scientists don’t know if this will work on humans, although we doubt any human testing will be performed for a while as this is a dangerous thing to toy with. It would be great to see this finding give humans the ability to enter suspended animation and make long space voyages possible. [via Gizmodo]