CREST Final Reflection

In this project, one of my successes was that I was able to change my topic in time and still be able to find sufficient research to come to a conclusion. However, it can be considered unsuccessful that I was unable to decide the topic and have an earlier realisation that I had way too complex and insufficient research. Another success was taking the whole of cryogenics and making it more focused on cryonics and how cryonics is used for human preservation and cryopreservation. In addition, I was able to focus on a few different aspects. For example, I included the ethics behind it.

Throughout this process, in terms of science, I discovered the impact of scientific practices on immortality. Before the project, I was unaware that there has been any progress towards immortality. I simply knew about methods of achieving a slightly prolonged life such as certain medication and obviously a healthy lifestyle. I also learned about some personal skills. I was able to efficiently research and work well under the pressure of having to complete a full report in less than a week.

Human cryopreservation is still in the developmental phase and therefore its vast impacts are still left undiscovered. Many choose to be cryopreserved in hopes to find a cure for their terminal illnesses, this can be a method to potentially preserve living humans that are close to death in the future. Even though it is not legal to cryopreserve a human alive, in the future it may be legal to do so as it is potentially life-saving technology. Cryopreservation may not even be used for prolonged life and instead be used to give doctors more time to find a cure or retrieve resources for a successful operation. However, there need to be philosophical and ethical considerations. For patients that do not have terminal illnesses, it can be pointless to have a significantly longer life and there would be no purpose for prolonged life.

To improve my project, I would have added more pictures and connected cryonics back to immortality in more detail. I think visuals are really important for my audience to be able to see what I am talking about. For example, I think I should have included photos of the dewars, the neuro-preservation setup. I also think that in terms of my work process, I should have done more research into the different methods of achieving immortality instead of blindly choosing one. Another improvement is that I may have changed my method of communication because my audience, Grade 10 students may get bored of reading my full project.