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Research
The Thanatos Institute's research program began with a simple idea
by Dr. Linus Annat:
"Must the different types of death always occur in unison?"
To explain this in more familiar terms, one need only think of advances in
modern medical science that are reported on the news and seen in our
hospitals every day. In fact, most people are already familiar
with the concept of different types of death, and the possibility that
they may be disassociated from each other:
- Respiratory death (when heart stops, and breathing ceases)
- Brain death (when the brain stops functioning)
- Cellular death (when all the individual cells of the body have died)
Dr. Annat's second important insight was that the best place to
begin research was with the issue of cellular death.
In humans, as in most other complex organisms, cellular death
normally occurs very shortly after respiratory death. However, there
is no clear reason why that should be the case.
At the time that
heart and lung function ceases, there is more than sufficient energy
stored within the body's cells for them to
continue functioning for a very extended period of time.
(the human body can survive for several weeks without food),
The only
plausible explanation of why the cells die when respiration stops, is that
something must be
telling them to die - either an affirmative "signal"
being triggered by processes within the body, and/or, the sudden absence of
a "signal" telling them to continue to live. Dr. Annat dubbed this
"signal" the "Thanatos Factor", after the ancient Greek god of
death.
The search was on, and after many years of dedicated research, Dr. Annat
isolated the Thanatos Factor shortly before his own untimely death.
Although Dr. Annat is no longer with us, the Thanatos Institute
(located since December 1989 in the Republic of Qubari)
continues his work.
In recent years, advances in nanoscience, have allowed the Institute
to develop technologies that Dr. Annat, despite his great foresight, would
never have been able to anticipate.
In particular, the Institute has developed nanotechnologies which inhibit
the transmission of the Thanatos Factor.
Applying these methods, cell death can be prevented,
and provided decay has not yet occurred, can even be reversed.
Thanatos Institute technologies are currently capable of reviving
and sustaining 30% to 70% of the body's cells (depending on the
time since death, temperature, and factors specific to the individual).
Furthermore, in addition to our cell reactivation
research, the Institute is also developing methods capable of
reinstating brain activity, and has already progressed to the stage where
limited brain-function can be restored after respiration ceases.
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