Updated: September 08, 2010

By Christa Fletcher

The idea of cryogenics is probably familiar to you from all of the fictional characters like Austin Powers, Dr. Evil, and Fry in Futurama freezing themselves -- but did you know that's considered cryonics, not cryogenics?

Cryonics is the belief that people and animals can be frozen and brought back to life, but so far, the technology doesn't exist to perform that particular task successfully for humans. Cryogenics, on the other hand, is the science of low temperatures and the behavior of substances in that state. When you incorporate the study of living organisms, that's called cryobiology, which is an investigation of how low temperatures affect living tissue.

There are many facets in the study of freezing ("cryo"), including animals. Cryopreservation, which is similar to the concept of cryonics, involves freezing animal tissues and cells. Cryogenecists are working to reduce cell damage in cryopreservation in order to make cryonics a reality with hopes for eventually being able to preserve endangered species indefinitely.

In fact, the Institute for Conservation Research at the San Diego Zoo has preserved 800 species so far in their Frozen Zoo. Find out more about these species and the process below.

Photo Credit: hplusmagazine.com