Want to be like Han Solo?

Not really--Han Solo was frozen while alive.  But if you are interested in having your (future) dead body frozen in liquid nitrogen and have $28,000 to spare for the privilege, then by all means check out the Cryonics Institute!

They claim on their website that there will "inevitably" come a day when the world is free from all disease, aging, and death.

Lots of questions to consider here: Is it physically possible to bring a dead body/person back to life? (It's not physically possible now, but can it ever be?)  Would it be desirable to bring yourself back to life in 100 or 1000 years?  And what are the ethical implications of this sort of thing?

The Immortal Jellyfish!

NYT article: Can a jellyfish unlock the secret of immortality?

Tardigrade love

Behold, the mighty tardigrade (we'll be talking about this little guy in class today)...

Still can't get enough?  Check out some of these articles.

New York Times article (from 9/7/15)

BBC article (3/13/15)

And Tumblrs too!

http://reassuringtardigrade.tumblr.com

http://fuckyeahtardigrades.tumblr.com 

Does life exist?

Check out this article ("Why Life Does Not Exist"), in which Ferris Jabr argues that "life" is a concept that is wholly invented, and which does not exist outside of the mind.  (Hence, that trying to define life is impossible and futile.)  Do you agree?

(An image of a pretty bird, presumably an example of living thing...)