Let's grab some genetically frozen fish sticks

I love reading DCist's collections of overheard quotes. This week they have a great indicator of poor science literacy among the DC public:

On the Corner of 13th and F last week:

Guy 1: "You know who's frozen?"
Guy 2: "Who's that?"
Guy 1: "Walt Disney. As soon as he died, they froze him using generics."
Guy 2: "You mean genetics?"
Guy 1: "Yeah, genetics. Whatever."

Both dudes clearly meant cryogenics, not genetics (at least they knew "generics" wasn't quite right.) But cryogenics is wrong too - cryonics is the correct term for freezing people with the intent to revive them later. Also, Walt Disney was actually cremated. Whatever.

More like this

Thanks, Jessica, for making the distinction between cryonics and cryogenics. It seems a lot of people confuse the two. Cryogenics--the art and science of achieving extremely low temperatures--has many applications: cooling magnets in particle accelerators, cryotreatment of metals, food freezing, telecommunications, cryosurgery, and many more. More information can be found on our website: www.cryogenicsociety.org.
Theresa Boehl
Cryogenic Society of America