The ultra-wealthy are turning to cryogenic freezing, hoping future science can bring them back to life. Around 500 people are already preserved this way, with 5,500 more planning to follow. But how does it work?

Cryonics, from the Greek word *krýos* (“icy cold”), preserves bodies at ultra-low temperatures after legal death, hoping they can be revived when science advances. Robert Ettinger, in *The Prospect of Immortality* (1962), argued that those who die of incurable diseases could be “frozen” and cured in the future. Scientists stress that “legally dead” doesn’t mean “irreversibly dead.” Cryonics aims to preserve brain cells before total death occurs.

James Hiram Bedford became the first cryopreserved human in 1967. A former UC Berkeley professor, Bedford battled terminal cancer and saw cryonics as his final adventure. “I’m feeling better,” he murmured before passing away. His body was quickly cooled and infused with dimethyl sulfoxide to prevent ice damage.

Today, Bedford remains in cryonic suspension in Arizona. As one mortuary worker said, “We didn’t look into the container, but a doctor told us it held a body.” Bedford’s preservation sparked a controversial quest to “defeat death”—a dream as old as humanity itself.