04-05-2025
When Star Wars becomes REALITY: Scientists reveal how you really could be frozen in 'carbonite' like Han Solo
It's one of the most iconic moments in the whole of the Star Wars universe.
In George Lucas's classic 1980 film 'The Empire Strikes Back', hero Han Solo (Harrison Ford) is frozen in carbonite by the evil Darth Vader.
The fictional metal hardened around the heroic space smuggler as it cooled – sealing him in a state of 'perfect hibernation'.
Carbonite is of course a fictional material, consigned to the realms of the Star Wars galaxy far, far away.
But according to one scientist, this scene is not completely the stuff of science-fiction.
Dr Alex Baker, a chemist at the University of Warwick, thinks humans could potentially be frozen like Solo with a real-life equivalent.
'You could make a nice wall hanging like Han Solo, but it would weight about the same as two VW Golfs,' he told MailOnline.
'So you'd need a very strong wall and picture hook.'
In the real world, liquid nitrogen and solid carbon dioxide (CO2) are examples of 'cryogens' – substances that can be used to freeze objects, like human eggs in IVF treatment.
While cryogens work for small objects, they are not yet possible freezing an entire person, simply because we are just too big.
'The issue is getting your insides to freeze before you died,' said Dr Baker. 'You wouldn't freeze consistently basically.'
Therefore, we have to look towards other materials that could do the job – of which one promising candidate in particular stands out.
Gallium is a liquid metal at room temperature but turns to solid once you get the temperature below 85.57°F (29.76°C).
Promisingly, studies have shown that gallium can be used to store small and very primitive organisms like nematode worms.
The worms can be dehydrated, entering into a peculiar state of suspended animation known as 'anhydrobiosis' where they lose almost all water.
They're then stored in liquid gallium that is cooled and solidified, before being recovered a week later, one recent Brazilian study shows.
What is gallium?
Gallium is a chemical element with the symbol Ga. It is a soft, silvery-white metal, similar to aluminium.
It's already used to make electronic circuits, semiconductors and light-emitting diodes (LEDs).
Studies have shown that gallium can be used to store small organisms like nematode worms.
To replicate the Star Wars scene with a human in gallium, Dr Baker suggests using a giant 'ice cube mould' measuring around two metres by half a metre.
This would make it big enough to fit a willing human participant – perhaps the world's biggest Star Wars fan willing to risk their life for the privilege.
Instead of being filled with water, the mould would be steadily filled with gallium to completely immerse the participant, before the temperature is lowered below the gallium freezing point (85.57°F/29.76°C).
When the experiment is over, the temperature would just have to be raised again, similar to the scene in 'Return of the Jedi'.
In the film, Han Solo is freed from the carbonite and suffers only short-term side effects – shivering and temporary blindness.
But unfortunately this is probably where the comparisons stop, as there's very little chance the Star Wars fan would emerge alive.
Firstly, humans 'are far more complex than these really simple worms', Dr Baker said – meaning we would die in any initial dehydration process.
'The reason it works in the worms is the dehydration puts the worms into suspended animation, they stop doing anything,' he said.
'You wouldn't be able to do this to a human without ending their life, as water is integral to life and all the chemical reactions that keep you alive.'
Overall, the encased person would run out of oxygen quite quickly – and drown in their 'own carbon dioxide in a metallic tomb'.
And while gallium is not as toxic as mercury, the chemical, physical, and toxicological properties of the metal have not been thoroughly investigated.
Biotechnology company Sigma-Aldrich says contact with gallium can potentially cause metallic taste, coughing, shortness of breath, headache, nausea, vomiting and dermatitis.
We still don't know whether safe prolonged human hibernation is possible, but some scientists are hopeful.
Vladyslav Vyazovskiy, associate professor of neuroscience, University of Oxford, said: 'Recent technological advances and new pharmacological and genetic tools have already shown great potential to induce or manipulate sleep.
'To fully understand how we could safely induce human hibernation, we will likely need to dissect key brain circuits and identify the key molecular pathways that regulate our sleep functions.'
Right not, there's perhaps more of a chance that we could create a real-life working lightsaber – but the 'superheated stick of fiery death' may be too dangerous for members of the public to get their hands on.
Why Star Wars bounty hunters would wear diamond-studded suits
In Star Wars, bounty hunters wear metal that can deflect superheated lightsabers and high energy particles from blasters.
Beskar is the fictional material in bounty hunter body armour, known for its high tolerance to extreme forms of damage.
But according to Dr Alex Baker, a chemist at the University of Warwick, a material on Earth could do a similar job - at a high cost.
Steel is strong but would melt under the intense heat of the lightsaber as each cation (a positively charged ion) in steel's structure dissipates the heat too slowly.
Instead, Dr Baker suggests a lab grown diamond, like the ones created by fellow Warwick chemist Professor Julie Macpherson.
This is a material that has a chance at successfully redistributing the heat of a plasma-based weapon.
Dr Baker says: 'Synthetic diamond is very good at dissipating heat: when one carbon atom starts to vibrate, so does the next one, quickly transporting heat, even the heat from my hand.
'This property makes diamonds useful for a variety of applications such as dissipating heat in electronics.'
Meanwhile, stormtroopers walk around in 'plastoid', bullet resistant plastic armour.
'Plastoid' isn't real, but earth-based polyethylene (the material in plastic bags) could be the answer to a functioning plastic armour.
While plastic bags are made from low-density polyethylene, the polyethylene used in some chopping boards is high-density, with packed polymer chains, and is potentially strong enough to stop a bullet.
