of us can avoid. what about if there was a workaround for death, some way of extending our physical existence on this planet? alcor was founded in 1972 in order to preserve people from the point of death, freeze them and then when technology is sufficiently advanced revive them in the future. a process it calls cryonics. this is an interesting infographic on the history of cryonics, which starts actually as far back as 1773, when benjamin franklin thought about the future of america and speculated that maybe he could be pickled in a vat of madeira with his best friends to see how the country came out. what goes on in this space here? obviously this simulates a procedure you would normally perform when somebody dies? exactly. we have to wait for the legal death to be declared. at that point we move the patient from the bed to the ice bath. we're gonna cover them with ice. and at the same time, even though they've been called legally dead, we're gonna restart all kinds of things.

we're gonna use a respirator to take over the breathing, we will use this mechanical cpr device and the reason we're doing that is that we want to administer a series of different medications to protect the cells. so this is even though the patient themselves is dead at this point? right. it's very much like when you donate an organ, even though the person has been declared dead that doesn't mean all of the cells are suddenly dead. patients are effectively pumped full of antifreeze to protect their tissue from the freezing process which comes later. it costs up to $200,000 to preserve a full body and $60,000 if somebody just wants their head preserved. so this is our operating room. the patient will be put on this special operating table. it's basically designed to shape the patient for long—term storage. we don't want someone at a very low temperature with their arm sticking out. it's very hard to fit into the capsule. this here as well, this is just for heads? so usually we'll begin on the operating table over there and then we do a neuro separation, a few vertebrae down, and then place the patient‘s cephalon, which is the brain

plus the skull, upside down in the neuro ring. essentially the same process, we're going to remove the blood and fluids from the brain and cryo protect them against ice formation. why would people want their head separated from their body? i'm not going to come backjust as a head, i'm going to get a new body and my view is that, unless i die early in an accident, then maybe i'm 95, 100—years—old if i'm lucky, my body's going to be in lousy shape anyway and the whole thing will have to be regenerated. why go to the extra cost of storing my whole body, which is ten times the volume ofjust my head? the corridors here are lined with photos of people who are already frozen in alcor‘s storage facility. this is the patient care bay, where we currently store all of our patients. currently 152. these are all of your patients? yes, all of our patients here. actually about two thirds of them are neuro patients. that means they're just heads? yeah.

so about half our living members are whole body. we actually have more neuro patients here. this can actually contain four whole body patients. alcor doesn't have any legal obligation to the people stored here as they've technically donated their bodies to science. what happens if you have a power cut, for instance? well, we don't need electricity for this. these are passive vessels, they're just gigantic, very expensive thermos flasks and you don't plug your thermos flask into electricity. we just use the liquid nitrogen, which boils off at —320, to maintain that temperature. alcor says it's a non—profit making organisation and that it has 1,150 people signed up for its services, including silicon valley billionaire peter thiel. but what motivates ordinary people to shell out up to $200,000 for cryogenic preservation? back in the uk, derek watkinson has signed himself and his family up forjust that via a different outfit called the cryonics institute.

i imagine being on my deathbed, dying, and then immediately waking up. if it's going to work, i'm going to wake up straightaway, because the passage of time won't mean anything, because i'm dead. so i'll wake up immediately and hopefully i'll be able to remember things. my memory will be intact, hopefully. who i am. your whole family is going to be preserved as well? yeah. luckily my wife and daughter are for the idea and they are signed up members of cryonics institute. but is this all too good to be true? we spoke to a neuroscientist who has serious misgivings about the basic foundations of cryonics. you really can't afford to freeze biological tissue until it's been adequately protected. but unless you take it down to those low temperatures for protection quite quickly, it will continue to decompose.

and my problem with the cryonics dream, the wishful thinking contracts that are sold, is that they haven't resolved that conflict. there's no evidence that they can get the antifreeze into all those micro nooks and crannies in the brain and satisfactorily protect it. we put this to alcor, who provided a detailed response: so, is this the ultimate insurance policy then? yeah, but i've not lost anything. a bit of money. but what's money! ? that's it for the short cut of click in san francisco. the full—length version is up on iplayer for you to watch right

now, and there's more from us on twitter @bbcclick and on facebook throughout the week. thanks very much for watching and we will see you soon. good evening. it's been an extremely mild weekend across the board, we have had the peak of the temperature now, the next few days will be turning chillier, 15 degrees around southern parts of lincolnshire helped by some sunshine. another pa rt helped by some sunshine. another part of the uk that's awesome sunshine was aberdeenshire, it was a little colder here. at the time we we re little colder here. at the time we were to the north of this band of rain but the rain has moved northwards across scotland and overnight it will push southwards

again across northern ireland into northern england, particularly in north—west england and later across north wales. south of the band of rain we have very mild air, cloudy and rather breezy, north of it things turn chillier. the band of rain is on the weather front here and that will continue pushing southwards on monday, pushing away the last of the mild air and instead introducing chillier airfrom the last of the mild air and instead introducing chillier air from the north—west, nothing extreme, though, for the time of year but a change certainly. we still have a very mild start across southern parts of england and wales where it is dried generally and then this band of rain that could be heavy for a while across the hills of north west wales and north—west england as well in the morning, not much east of the pennines. behind the band of rain we are in the chillier air so we have clearer skies and ulcers and showers and maybe some winteriness in scotland. ahead of the rain some strong and gusty winds for a while. the rain band move southwards and by the time it's across southern england in the afternoon the rain,

not much of it really, here we will find the highest temperatures into double figures, some sunshine eventually in wales, through the midlands, northern england, scotland and northern ireland seeing some sunshine, but there will be a chillier feel. with light winds and clear skies overnight, risk of frost, across southern and eastern parts of england. we will, however, starbright with sunshine for these areas. through the day on tuesday the cloud will tend to increase, this is a transition day, if you like, the rain in the south—west is not coming to much really. the wetter weather through the day will be the north—west of scotland and temperatures 6—8d, near normal for the time of year but chillier than we have seen. the weather systems move we have seen. the weather systems m ove a cross we have seen. the weather systems move across the uk, this one is the more significant feature taking rain away from the south—east on wednesday morning, and then we change our wind direction and get another push of colder air coming down and it's this colder air through the middle part of the week

with it some wintry showers and it will feel colder in the in the wind. this is bbc news. the headlines at seven. police release an image of a man they want to speak to over the deaths of three teenagers who were hit by a car in west london on friday. leave campaigners in the conservative party step up pressure on the prime minister — they want her to take a harder line with the eu. the leader of russia's main opposition party is arrested — the founder of the swedish furniture giant ikea, ingvar kamprad, has died at the age of ninety—one. also in the next hour — manchester city... are comfortably through to the next age of the fa cup. a 2—0 win away

against cardiff city puts them into the fifth round. and in melbourne, roger federer wins his sixth australian open