Darpa: Freeze Soldiers to Save Injured Brains

The Pentagon’s mad-science division has a new way to deal with the 70,000+ troops diagnosed with traumatic brain injury: Freeze ‘em.

Darpa, the military’s far-out research arm, is looking for research projects that would create a “therapeutic hypothermia device” to prevent traumatic brain injuries from causing permanent molecular damage to the brain. The idea is based on successful studies that used cortical cooling to treat survivors of strokes and cardiac arrest. According to Darpa’s solicitation, cooling down the brain after trauma can offer “dramatic neuroprotection” that will prevent long-term harm to cognition and motor skills.


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