Cryobiology is a part of biology that studies life at low temperatures,



temperatures that are too low to sustain it. This may sound a little

strange, but in fact it's not, because life is too complex to be easily

defined, so all its aspects must be studied, even when it ends, or

'expires'. You may say that at low temperatures the border between life and

death can be reached, because water starts to freeze and turn to ice.

Without water, life can't be sustained anymore, it begins to fade, to

freeze, and time seems to stop. Cryobiology studies these phenomenons

that occur when life freezes, and it has a lot of practical uses for us.

Technically, you could say that cryobiology represents the study of

life at all temperatures that don't support it. It may be said that the

science of cryobiology started in 1949 when sperm was cryopreserved for

the first time. Nowadays cryopreservation has a lot of general uses,

from which the most important is that due to it organs (hearts or kidneys

for example) can be preserved and transported at low temperatures, and

than transplanted to people in need. Many lives were saved this way.

Cryobiology is also used at in-vitro fertilisations, eggs can be

fertilized by sperm that was previously frozen, or the other way around.

Another really useful thing that is based on the science of cryobiology

is cryosurgery. It's not too common but it has some advantages, like

helping increase the duration of the operations, or maybe curing cancer

in the future.

But cryobiology is quite a new science, so more results of the

cryobiolgysts' work will be seen in the future. It is hoped that cryobiology

will be used in slowing down the aging process, because the chemical

reactions that lead

to aging can be substantially slowed down at low temperatures.

Also, as you probably know from science - fiction movies, it is hoped

that cryobiology will have an important use in long - distance space

travels, because the astronauts could be frozen during the long trip, with

their vital signs preserved, so they wouldn't age or consume too many

resources.

So we can only hope that cryobiology will evolve and we will have new

means of delaying old age or curing difficult diseases.