Last it was Nanotech, now it's Cryostasis!!! Cryogenics is a do or die field of science. Everyone wants it, but either it will happen, or it wont. Basically, it's the storage of a body in a cold state that stops all progression of bodily systems. Suspended animation, basically. Cryogenic Suspension works on the theory that, the colder you are, the slower your body works. Just like hybernating, only totally stopping, or at least, slowing life down enough that the suspended person wakes up the same age, physically, as they were when they went to sleep.
Cryo-stasis has a rollercoaster of a history, many times going from "you can do it" to "It's impossible" and back. The biggest problem is that, basically, whenver we've tried freezing people, thawing them out give you one cold corpse. Science has'nt perfected the freezing process yet. Most vital organs are a set size, and one of the biggest problems with animal cells is, that, we don't have a cell wall. Just a Cell membrane. In animals, when you freeze them, cells will die, because the water in the cell expands, bursting the cell wall. Then, when you thaw them out, everything in the cell falls out of the cell, and it's kinda like you trying to function with your organs lying beside you on the floor. Plants have a cemm membrane that stretches, and protects them (somewhat) from freezing winds. Plus, they're small, so the heat they retain is bled off evenly. On a body as large as a human, heat is different throughout the body. The internal orgams are warm enough to steal on a cool day, but your fingers and toes remain alot closer to room temp. your nose, and the tops of your ears are cool, while your upper cheeks and earlobes are warm. The difference in heating means that some parts will freeze before others, and the water expansion, and other factors, will cause problems.. so evenly cooling the body is a must. Unfortunately, every attempt today has led to failure, and loss of life. (Read as: Do NOT volunteer to be Cryogenically frozen... at least, not untill they can proove it's worked on others.)
To solve these problems, scientests need to look at new drugs, like depressants, to help slow down and even out body systems, and ways of removing the water from a cell enough that the expansion will not rupture them. (a few popped skin cells isn't to big a deal. But if your spinal column is rendered useless because it's mush and sinks into your ass.. well.. then you have a problem.) That, or reinforcing all the body's cells, with either the addition of a cell wall, or strengthening the membrane of the cell enough to make it both stretchy, and porous, to allow normal cell function to contunie.
All in all, this field bears looking into. Einstein said we can't go faster than light. Be that true or not, It's going to take us a while to teleport instantly from one star to another. In the mean time, Suspended animation sounds like the most reasonable of ways to actually see the star you're going to. Because without, on most concievable starships, you'd leave with a family, and your great-grand children would get to see the stars right before they pass on into death.
-Kyle