Cryonics startup Cradle just dropped, with $48 million in the bank and a mission to make reversible whole-body cryopreservation a thing.

Co-founders Laura Deming (the VC and longevity whiz) and Hunter C Davis believe they can hit the pause button on life and then hit play when the time is right. "We're building reversible cryo tech," Deming said on X. "Think hibernation pods from space movies for long-term travel - that's what we're aiming for."

Cradle's website says, "We're optimistic that human whole-body reversible cryopreservation is doable." Big news: they've already managed to revive electrical activity in a frozen slice of rat brain tissue.

This is just the start - they've got plans to freeze organs next, then whole animals, and eventually, humans. Cradle's got three big goals: 1) make brain tissue samples more accessible for research, 2) extend the time donor organs can be stored, and 3) let people with terminal illnesses hit pause until a cure comes along.

To make it all happen, they're working on new ways to pump blood around, turn stuff into glass (vitrification), and warm things up super fast. They're also cooking up new cryoprotectant molecules to deal with the toxicity issues. Deming's message to the doubters?

"I get mad when I see problems that could help patients being ignored just because they seem uncool or haven't been properly evaluated. We need to do everything we can to find the best way to cure patients, and that means looking past our cognitive biases."

Tell us in our Forum, would you freeze yourself and unfreeze in the future?