There are several cryonics firms around the world, including Acor Life Extension Foundation in Scottsdale, Arizona, who will gladly take your money today to put your body in the eternal deep freeze.

Alcor explains that "Cryonics is the practice of preserving life by pausing the dying process using subfreezing temperatures with the intent of restoring good health with medical technology in the future." ? TN Editor

Suspended in a deep freeze, the growing number of 'patients' at the world's biggest cryo-preservation facilities are taking a dice roll at another life.

Despite the current odds being vanishingly small, they represent an increasing number of people opting for an indefinite existence at -196C after their legal deaths.

The sleek white vats stood in rows at the Cryonics Institute (CI) storage facilities in Michigan contain bodies, body parts and pets from around the world.

Those frozen in liquid nitrogen awaiting possible future technological advances to revive them include chefs, students, secretaries and professors, with Brits being the most keen takers outside the US.

CI president Dennis Kowalksi tells Metro.co.uk that he regards the centres as a place of 'awe and responsibility'. But it's more of a waiting game than a place worthy of a sci-fi imagining, with the oldest patient having been in her sub-zero waiting room for more than 40 years.