I just finished reading a book titled The Day After Tommorow, by Allan Folsom. It's about this Nazi conspiracy that involves a series of murders involving decapitated heads/bodies. In the end, it reveals that the Nazis were cutting off the heads and reattaching them to other bodies in temperatures not far from absolute zero.

In case if you don't know, absolute zero is the coldest temperature possible. If you have a basic knowledge of physics, you know that the hotter something is, the faster the molecules vibrate. Well, vice-versa applies, the colder something is, the slower teh molecules vibrate. Absolute zero is when all the molecules are perfectly still., motionless. Perfect molecular alignment. Theoretically, it's impossible to reach absolute zero, according to the laws of quantum mechanics, but I won't get into that because even I don't understand it completely. However, scientists have reached a temperature a few billionsths of a degree above that.

Since the molocules are prefectly still, it wouldn't be that hard to seamlessly integrate a head onto another body. Pretty scary concept huh?

I'm not sure if the body will "accept" the head as a part of it, as with patients who get transplants. Anyone else know more about this?

A problem that arises with this theory is similar to the reason why people aren't put into cryogenics wihle still (partially) alive...Even at absolute zero, the moisture in human tissue will crystalize, expand & literally rip the tissues apart right down on the cellular level. The only solution to that problem that I can figure is if absolute zero-temprature could be reached in almost zero-time, so as to stop the molecuar motion *before* the moisture crystalizes.

...In a similar vein, that's why some produce, like tomatoes, cannot be sold after freezing...The internal moisture crystalize & tears the soft tissues apart.

The person who could figure out how to freeze produce like that while preserving the moisture content coudl become very wealthy indeed...


[Edited on 15-10-2003 by MidnightDStroyer]

True MidnightDStroyer, and dont forget the immunesystem..

A problem that arises with this theory is similar to the reason why people aren't put into cryogenics wihle still (partially) alive...Even at absolute zero, the moisture in human tissue will crystalize, expand & literally rip the tissues apart right down on the cellular level. The only solution to that problem that I can figure is if absolute zero-temprature could be reached in almost zero-time, so as to stop the molecuar motion *before* the moisture crystalizes.

Flash frozen people....interesting.... Somehow, I doubt they were capable of anything even close to this at the time.... I'm more of the thinking that these murders are connected more with the reanimation program the Nazi's were attempting, but not that they tried it by getting close to absolute Zero... (0 degrees Kelvin... that's mighty cold...)

[Edited on 15-10-2003 by Gazrok]

Actually, the books doesn't really say how they performed the operation. It's just revealed in the end that it happened. It mentions that a scalpel that could withstand extreme temperatures that was controlled by a robotic arm was used. I have no idea how an arm could move in an enviroment where everything is supposed to be perfectly still. It doesn't mention anything on how they managed to get to that temperature wither. The ending reveals that the surgeries took place in a secret underground complex built under a glacier though.

well, I guess it doesn't provde much for any scientific stuff, but the plot's pretty good (now that I gave it away).

I think the coldest at the time must have been liquid nitrogen, oxygen or other gas.
Not nearly near enough absolute zero