Wonderfest: Anesthesia and Hibernation: Enduring Deep-Space Travel

 

Sci-Fi movies often depict hibernation as the secret to long-duration human spaceflight. (Note: Even with ideal starship acceleration and deceleration, the nearest exoplanet is 3.6 years away!) Of course, the boundary between science fiction and science fantasy is hazy. Advances in anesthesia may facilitate hibernation. Physiologically, however, general anesthesia is detrimental in the short term, and worse in the long term. Will long-spaceflight medical advances ever be able to deal with this sobering hibernation fact: roughly half of naturally-hibernating animals never revive!

Our speaker is Dr. Art Wallace, Professor and Vice-Chair of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Care at UC San Francisco. He is also Chief of Anesthesia at San Francisco's Veterans Affairs Medical Center.