Can you put someone in a state perched on the knife’s edge between life and death...and bring them back? Cryogenic freezing, suspended animation, human hibernation. The idea has captivated people for ages. What if we could hit pause on ourselves to buy more time as we wait for an organ transplant or treatment after a terrible injury?

Scientists in Seattle are getting closer to making it a reality...if only in lab animals for now.

We talk to Mark Roth, a professor in the basic sciences division at the Fred Hutch Cancer Center and a MacArthur Genius grant recipient about his work with suspended animation.

Pocket Science is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. It is hosted by Gabriel Spitzer, edited by Jim Gates and produced by Anna Boiko-Weyrauch.

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Correction, October 27, 2026 at 12:20 PM PDT: An earlier version of this story misstated the chemical agent in human heart attack trials. It has also been adjusted to clarify heart attack patients vs cardiac arrest patients.

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Meet your new favorite organ, the thymus. Scientists have since discovered a whole world within this little wad of tissue in your chest – a complex system that trains and equips some of your body's most important fighters against disease.

Jarrod Dudakov, professor of immunology at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, explains how the thymus can help us understand why our bodies get worse at fighting disease as we age.

More resources:

• Jarrod Dudakov at the Fred Hutchinson Canter Research Center
• The landmark 1961 research article in The Lancet, “The Immunological Function of the Thymus”

Pocket Science is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. It is hosted by Gabriel Spitzer, edited by Jim Gates and produced by Anna Boiko-Weyrauch.

We can only make Pocket Science because listeners support us. Tap here to make a gift and keep Pocket Science in your feed.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A full wiring diagram of the brain could show how its different parts work together, and it could potentially reveal new insights into diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Gabe visits the electron microscopy connectomics project at Seattle’s Allen Institute, and learns how they are using AI to parse over 100 million high resolution pictures of a slice of mouse brain the size of a poppyseed.

More resources:

• The Connectomics team at the Allen Institute's brain science accelerator
• Forrest Collman
• Andrew Hickl

Pocket Science is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. It is hosted by Gabriel Spitzer, edited by Jim Gates and produced by Shane Mehling and Anna Boiko-Weyrauch.

We can only make Pocket Science because listeners support us. Tap here to make a gift and keep Pocket Science in your feed.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.