What appeared, in the movie THE THING, as wholly impossible three decades ago, still seems doubtful but not altogether unthinkable. The setting of the movie is a frigid North Pole military research station. The research staff discovers a "thing-like" being encased beneath the ice in a frozen state. After extracting the Thing by sawing the ice into a casket-like form, the Thing's ice casket melts and flesh thaws bringing the Thing back to life. The process suggests the possibility of cryonics. (Cryonics is the science of dropping the temperature of biological entities such as human organs [or biological species] in order to preserve them for extended periods of time eliminating or slowing the aging process such that when returned to normal temperature, the entity regains vitality as though the process had not been performed.) If cryonics can be achieved by spacefarers, a journey to the stars may be realized. Though the trip might require centuries, those who set forth can be frozen into a suspended biological state then resurrected (thawed) on arrival in the same fashion depicted in the movie THE THING.
