Cryogenic Founder Frozen

It was a cool idea, literally. Having been amazed at the quality of his medical treatment during the Second World War, Robert Ettinger came up with the novel idea of cryogenic preservation in 1964.

The premise was fairly simple: freeze people shortly after death to preserve their bodies, and patiently wait for science to catch up, before being reawoken and cured of their fatal disease.

And no-one can accuse Mr Ettinger of not liking a taste of his own medicine, as he died a few days ago at the age of 92, and was immediately plunged into liquid nitrogen at a temperature of -196 degrees centigrade.

He joins 105 others at the Cryonics Institute in Michigan, and, who knows, perhaps he'll be reanimated in 2032 with John Spartan and Simon Phoenix in a dystopian San Angeles.

Of course, the technique has already been proved to be viable with Austin Powers and Dr. Evil emerging from 30 years of cryogenic freezing in 1997, an event which received widespread coverage.

Strangely, this did not lead to a huge upsurge of clients for Ettinger's Institute.

Image: Rex