http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/10/09/cheating.death.suspended.animation/index.html
It might be useful. I need to develop a long term suspended animation idea for people for my SF WIP. I wrote it one way, using hypothermia, but that's so interesting I might change it to be more in line with the article.
Generally, if someone is going for suspended animation, the get into the pod, plug in, and it closes. They wake up at their destination.
Unless the story is about the suspended animation, such as the inventor, or it is failing, or someone has to jury-rig something to get home or away, the process is never going to need to be be explained.
Think about our world. Most people are not going to give an effective explanation of how a nuclear power plant really works (a simple steam generator) or how a diesel train really works (the fuel powers generators and the electricity powers the motors to move them)
Half the population won't be able to explain the drive train of a car or the way a washing machine can change modes from agitate to spin. Most who have some concept will get the details wrong.
In most cases, one gets into a car, turns the key, and drives, not having to even think of how it works. It only becomes a problem when it stops working.
It is like the old stories where the hero in the old stories would pull out a blaster and explain how it works, before returning fire. Instead, one handles it like a modern detective pulls his revolver, aims and fires. You see how it is used and the effect of the use.
And, also like any other good SF idea, if I knew how to do it, I'd be out doing it and making a pile of money doing it. (Much like my writing, actually.)
Of course I can't and don't need to explain the nitty gritty details, but having a good general idea of how they possibly could do that is a nice touch and gives you more ideas as to what could possibly go wrong with a technology like that (lots of good story ideas there!)
Like, what if they're gassing people and someone forgets or deliberately decides not to put in the appropriate chemicals to wake them up? Great murder mystery SF plot there, I think...
Did anyone see the CNN presentation of this particular technology last night?
I remember in one book on writing I read that said,
We are writers, not inventors.
It then told about where an author would have something in their story and the publisher would tell them that the invention in their story was impossible.
This was during the hard science fiction era where it was about the science.
Anyway, several would be authors then go about trying to prove their feature in the story would work by trying to invent it, to prove their story was publishable.
In my story ideas, I have described brand new inventions hundreds of times. I have the advantage that I don't have to go through the effort to actually make something that might work.
I'm told of several things SF writers have invented this or that. (The writer who wrote SF under the name "Murray Leinster" is said to have invented the original blue-screen back projection process that puts actors in front of pre-filmed stuff, for instance.) But I know of none who got rich off their inventions.
I'm no engineer, and my training in it is limited. I'm inclined to insert something plausible into my stories, that would fill a niche if it existed...that might change any number of things in the real world if it existed...but I always avoid-like-the-plague going into engineering details of it.
[edited to remove an double use of "invented"---I must've typed it in without noticing, while pausing to think about what to write.]
[This message has been edited by Robert Nowall (edited October 20, 2009).]
1) Freezing (not too improbable. There are some arctic species (like frog) that actually freeze during the winter and thaw in the summer. It doesn't work in humans because our cells burst. Frogs have a type of antifreeze in their bodies. If science could invent some injectible antifreeze, it would be as simple as putting them in a freezer and having all chemical reactions cease.
2)Stasis booth. An area that is sealed from spacetime, so no time passes for the being inside, though years can pass outside.
3) Chemical (like this new thing). Something that puts a person into an extended coma. the problem with this is that body systems still function (hair grows, molecular reactions take place, though more slowly), so it wouldn't last as long as the others. Also, if medicine had progressed to make people immortal (fixing DNA or whatnot...) then all you would have to do is induce coma and keep the person alive for the journey before waking them.