Biostasis

Biostasis is the ability of an organism to tolerate environmental changes without having to actively adapt to them. Biostasis is found in organisms that live in habitats that likely encounter unfavorable living conditions, such as drought, freezing temperatures, change in pH levels, pressure, or temperature. Insects undergo a type of dormancy to survive these conditions, called diapause. Diapause may be obligatory for these insects to survive. The insect may also be able to undergo change prior to the arrival of the initiating event.

Biostasis is also used as a synonym for the terms cryostasis or cryonics. Cryonics is a medical procedure concept that is a well established trope in Science Fiction, that may at some point in the future become a possible option for individuals who are terminally ill. The patients would be frozen in what is known as cryonic suspension. The patients are frozen so that when technology advances both to enable them to be unfrozen and brought back to life but also for their illness to be treated, they can be re-animated and their disease can be cured or treated.

Medical biostasis can be put to use in humans to help repair brain damage.

There is evidence that suggests, in the next decade medical biostasis procedures can be performed by trauma surgeons by 2026.