by Tony Leonard
A British magazine is offering one of its readers the chance to live for ever.
When the winner dies their body will be frozen untill scientists have developed the technology to bring. them back to life.
The amazing £30,000 prize is being offered by boffins' bible: New Scientist.
It is the first time anywhere in the world that the ultimate prize of the chance to live again has been offered in ar competition.
Just like TV astronaut Buck Rogers or actor Mel Gibson in the movie Forever Young, the winner's body will be sealed
in a special coffin and flown to the US.
At the space-age Cryonics Institute, near Detroit, Michigan, the body will be placed in a sleeping bag inside a metal flask and deep-frozen to minus 197°C by liquid nitrogen.
When the winner is eventually thawed out and "repaired", he or she will probably get to meet stars such as Woody Allen and Michael Jackson - who have already signed up to be frozen. [sic]
More than 400 people, including 20 in the UK, have already booked a big chill.
In the magazine contest, readers have to collect four tokens from New Scientist, which goes on sale today.
But anyone who is sceptical about the possibility of practical cryonics - or simply feels one life is quite enough - could opt for an alternative prize.
The "Live For Now" prize is a week in Hawaii viewing the universe from the Mauna Kea observatory.
Alun Anderson, New Scientist's editor-in-chief, said: "We think the cryonics
promotion is a way of making science interesting to everyone, not just scientists.
"We also realise that the idea of cryonic preservation is not for everyone, either because people may not believe it could work or because they may be opposed to it on religious grounds.
"But it does get people talking about science, and that is what the magazine aims to do."
New Scientist editor Jeremy Webb said: "We're billing this as the weirdest competition in the world. We're offering our readers
the chance to live after their death. It's a gamble.
"There's one certainty when you die and you're buried or cremated - there is no chance of ever coming back to life.
"With this way there is a chance. It might be one per cent or 0.1 per cent but it is a gamble on the future.
"Scientists are fascinated by the whole idea of being able to come back to Earth in 100, 500 or even 1,000 years to see what humans have done to our planet."
New Scientist is read by more than half a million scientists around the world every week.
Retired teacher Chrissie de Rivaz, 62, from Porthtowan, Cornwall has already signed up to have her body frozen.
She said: "Nobody really wants to die - and this offer is a tiny chance to return in the future.
"I love the idea of time travel and being able to see a whole new world is most exciting.
"Some people say it will never happen - but I have seen so many technological changes in my lifetime that we can never say never."
The article filled nearly half a page and included pictures of Michael Jackson and Woody Allen and a scene from the mel Gibson film Forever Young. I have no konwledge of either of the celebrities mentioned being signed up.