IT IS a scientific gamble, a hope pinned on theory to preserve life.
But more people are being cryogenically frozen than ever before – with scientists hopeful that their patients will one day be able to wake, fully restored to live another day.
Born from the theories of Robert Ettinger, the process of cryopreservation has been refined over time with hundreds of bodies now kept at -196C in storage facilities across the US and Russia
The so-called father of cryogenics Ettinger himself is preserved in a vat of liquid nitrogen, with the pioneer having been inspired by a science fiction story, The Jameson Satellite.
The futuristic story, which involved a professor's body being jetted into space to be revived by aliens 40 million years later, has now inspired more than 1300 people - including 90 in the UK - to sign up to be frozen after death.
One such lab that is hopeful is the The Cryonics Institute, where a 14-year-old British girl who died of a rare form of cancer is now being kept.
The organisation was formed in 1976 and charges a minimum of USD$28,000 - or £37,000 - for its patients to be kept in sub-freezing temperatures, with many of those who have signed up hoping the process will be the key to living forever, or at least longer.
The Cryonics Institute keeps meticulous records of who is stored at their facilities, with the site sitting just outside of Detroit, Michigan.
One of three institutes who offer the "services", it is believed CI has almost 150 patients while Alcor in Arizona currently has 149 patients while KrioRus, an organisation in Russia, cares for more than 50 patients.
More than 90 UK patients have signed up with the Cryonics Institute so far, with the process so far appearing to be the most popular in the US.
WHO IS ROBERT ETTINGER, FATHER OF THE CRYONICS MOVEMENT?
ROBERT Ettinger's body sits between 100 others, frozen in time.
The father of the cryogenics movement believed so strongly in his theories that he underwent the process after dying at the age of 92 in 2011.
Having been obsessed with the idea of his own mortality throughout his life, the American academic was inspired by science fiction to examine the idea of freezing a body in time to be resuscitated years later.
Becoming a worldwide sensation after publishing his book "The Prospect of Immortality" in the early 1960s, Ettinger devoted his life to researching the possibility of halting the decay of a body.
In the book, he wrote: "If civilization endures, medical science should eventually be able to repair almost any damage to the human body including freezing damage and senile debility or other cause of death."
His son, David, told media at the time of his father's death, the man was hopeful he would one day live another day.
He said: "My father devoted himself to doing what he could to enable his family, his friends and others to come back and live again.
"Whether he will achieve that nobody knows at this point, but we think he has a good shot."
The father of the cryogenics movement believed so strongly in his theories that he underwent the process after dying at the age of 92 in 2011.
Having been obsessed with the idea of his own mortality throughout his life, the American academic was inspired by science fiction to examine the idea of freezing a body in time to be resuscitated years later.
Becoming a worldwide sensation after publishing his book "The Prospect of Immortality" in the early 1960s, Ettinger devoted his life to researching the possibility of halting the decay of a body.
In the book, he wrote: "If civilization endures, medical science should eventually be able to repair almost any damage to the human body including freezing damage and senile debility or other cause of death."
His son, David, told media at the time of his father's death, the man was hopeful he would one day live another day.
He said: "My father devoted himself to doing what he could to enable his family, his friends and others to come back and live again.
"Whether he will achieve that nobody knows at this point, but we think he has a good shot."
More than 125 pets have also been preserved.
The numbers have slowly grown, with 74 members signing up to the institute in 2015 alone.
It is a huge leap from the 1990s, with the numbers barely reaching half a dozen until a sudden spike of interest in 1999.
The Cryonics Institute president Dennis Kowalski said: "Cryonics is much more than just the science of "freezing," because our objective is life after revival, with renewed youth and extended lifespans.
"We want to make this a reality."
Images from within the institute shows the tables where the bodies undergo the exhaustive process of being prepared for storage.
The futuristic white labs are also pinning hopes on the advances in 3D biological printers to give patients the ability to be revived in a healthy, youthful state.
But for now, the bodies remain large vats of liquid nitrogen, frozen in time.
So when will the patients be revived?
Robert A. Freitas, author of three-volume text Nanomedicine, has publicly stated: "I would not be surprised if the first cryonics revival was attempted by 2040-2050."
The future could be closer than we think.
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