I was reading an article about this via the Economist recently...

I believe they were saying that H2S could have some good implications for victims of heart attacks. My recollection might be wrong, but I think they were alluding to paramedics being equipped with the stuff to keep you alive during transport. You could probably find it on economist.com, let me know your results.

ntrgc89

poor snow white, there goes prince's kiss down the drain

chamychan

I just shit my pants.

DMF

I think they forgot to mention the side effects, like death!(A guy my friend worked with died 2 weeks ago from it)

Hydrogen sulfide can affect several different systems in the body. Exposure to lower concentrations can cause eye irritation, a sore throat and cough, shortness of breath and fluid in the lungs. These symptoms usually go away in a few weeks after exposure ends. Long-term, low- level exposure may result in fatigue, loss of appetite, headaches, irritability, poor memory and dizziness. Breathing very high levels of hydrogen sulfide can cause death within just a few breaths. There could be loss of consciousness after one or more breaths.

Abnormal

Imagine the morning breath you would have though!

mcjake

but secretly, i had the same thoughts

MrBlahBlah

@jetexas:

man you really know how to sap the fun out of an article!

MrBlahBlah

You could sleep for 500 hundred years, but you'd have to smell your own gas the whole time. And wake up smelling like ass.

To paraphrase Dave Atell, you could use some lemon scented spray. But you just end up with a lemony-ass smell. And nothing beats ass.

EBone

Ah. That completely reverses my causal perception of retirement homes. I thought that as people aged, they passed more gas. Turns out, they are living longer because they pass more gas.

Beans, beans the life-extending fruit
The more you eat, the more you toot
The more you toot, the longer you live
So mash me up some beans and feed me through a sieve.

Opie

A completely reversible state of metabolic suppression?

What kind of suppression are we talking about? I mean, personally I think sniffing sewer gas would definitely shut off my appetite, which probably slows down my metabolism, but I'm having trouble believing it's anything close to a situation where I could stay asleep for a year.

I think it would be impossible to suspend animation completely. You would still have to stick all sorts of tubes and needles into the astronauts to feed them and antibiotics, so that they don't die of infection from bed sores, etc. Then, how do you cope with the massive muscle loss that comes with not moving for a year? You'd have to shock their muscles with electrical impulses to slow down deterioration, and how do you shock them without kicking them back out of the coma?

I might eat less and use less oxygen for a year, but I'd be in such worse shape than if I was just awake on the spacecraft.

jetexas

oh man... sign me up - and wake me up when the dollar recovers.

AnnihilaT

JENKEM!

multimoog

Does this mean that chili and burritos prolong life?

mtfbmx

"Scientists have discovered that small doses of Hydrogen sulfide put mice into a completely reversible state of metabolic suppression"...

Maybe the mice are just pretending they did not do it?...

sfokevin

"Pull my finger and live forever!"

Poon

But imagine what you would smell like after a 1,000 years or so... Doubt you could get layed - So what would be the point?...

sfokevin

sounds sick, but it seems like you just made up the space travel part on your own

Manve

Scientists have discovered that small doses of Hydrogen sulfide put mice into a completely reversible state of metabolic suppression.

i wonder what the upper limit on this state is though? i mean are we talking a few days? months? years? centuries?

makes a pretty big difference concerning usefulness.

x23

So will my pension go large if i work sanitation dept and retiring at 90?

gizmodohomepage

I just farted and went into suspended animation - THAT EXPLAINS IT.

feckineejit

awesome. now how do i do a futurama!

malcs

The system with Alpha Centauri here we come!

innout3x3

So when I back up the toliet I'm actually prolonging everyone's life?

Lupison

F*ck that. All you Star Wars/Trek goobers can have your suspended animation. I'll take sniffing Victoria's Secret stores as I pass by.

Samifumi

Talk about morning breath when you wake up after sleeping and breathing sewer gas for a 100 years.

Kingteddybear

@multimoog: May those sewage huffing kids live longer more suspended lives than us.

jackfrost132

So this is what accounts for the typically youthful appearance of street-people? Riiiight....

Mandatory_Field

When my dog farts, I want to kill myself. Is this the same concept?

geekinky

No thank you!!
i would much prefer dignity in death :P

pradster

Tonight I'm gonna dutch oven myself and my wife into the future!

dingus

Hydrogen sulphide? "Last one out of suspended animation is a rotten egg!"

professor

Next time you see some beautiful woman who looks ten years younger than she is, you better think twice boys. She may be hot out in the open, but get her into a closed space and you might be in trouble.

Monty

and from another study: "Conclusions: H2S does not appear to have hypometabolic effects in ambiently cooled large mammals and conversely appears to act as a hemodynamic and metabolic stimulant." -[tinyurl.com]
yay for studies!

danger_the_pirate

To think once upon a time I would sacrafice a rib to _______ myself. Now theres much more incentive... ATN?

evilR3

@jetexas: why would muscles that are metabolizing at 1% their normal rate reduce in size? If you're in a coma your body is still running at near 100% metabolism.

Why would there be bed sores in the absence of gravity?

Jason

I find it funny that the article says, "Hydrogen sulfide is the stinky gas that can kill workers who encounter it in sewers." Anyone who's done any work in the refining or natural gas industries should know a lot about it. After doing plenty of work in these environments for the past few years, I think I'll pass...

H2S is nasty stuff... You start smelling it at a concentration 1ppm. The maximum allowable exposure level is 10ppm. @ 20ppm you get irritation of eye, nose and throat areas. At 50ppm, you lose your sense of smell (and therefore your main indicator that you're exposed to H2S), get a headache and dizziness. 100ppm is IDLH (immediately dangerous to life and health). At 500ppm, unconsciousness occurs within a few minutes, followed by respiratory paralysis. If not rescued by someone with SCBA gear within 3-15 minutes, you die.

I recently visited an oil field in west Texas where there was a big sign in the operators' building that said, "H2S: THIS GAS WILL KILL YOUR ASS"

Canoman

@Jason: unless there's another study getting ready to break wide open the whole warp drive thingy, then we'd still be traveling under full acceleration 1/2 ways, then *flip* and full deceleration the other 1/2 way. Soooooo, replace gravity with g-force and bed sores still a factor! now, with metabolism running at 1%, would bedsores be less likely? I think so, but that remains to be proven.

banmojo

I am personally astonished by the complete and utter absence of 'Uranus' comments pertaining to this article.

bobobob

how did they discover in the first place? terence and philip?

Red3y3Ninja

Yesterday at work my dog farted in my office and I almost passed out, so this could work!

maven2k

Man I miss ST Voyager...

ke4sfq

So...the first aliens we come across will think we all smell like ass? Good first impression!

yougottabekidding

Whoa.. I wonder if a thorough inspection of our sewer systems will return a suspended breed of ancient rats (still carrying the black plague) making for the greatest archaeological discovery this century?

bsegovia