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This paper will first review the issue of hypometabolism in mammals with a focus on the strategies these animals evolved to cope with life challenge in hostile environments (e.g., cold weather and/or shortage of food). The different types of natural hypometabolism (hibernation, torpor, winter sleep) will be briefly described as well as major adaptations in body temperature, and energy and cell metabolism. In the second part of this review the issue of inducing a hypometabolic state in mammals will be afforded with special attention paid to changes in body temperature and metabolism, regulation of gene expression and the possible role of hibernation inducing factors. Finally, an overview of the potential of inducing a hypometabolic state in the human as related to the broad field of biomedicine will be given.

This paper will first review the issue of hypometabolism in mammals with a focus on the strategies these animals evolved to cope with life challenge in hostile environments (e.g., cold weather and/or shortage of food). The different types of natural hypometabolism (hibernation, torpor, winter sleep) will be briefly described as well as major adaptations in body temperature, and energy and cell metabolism. In the second part of this review the issue of inducing a hypometabolic state in mammals will be afforded with special attention paid to changes in body temperature and metabolism, regulation of gene expression and the possible role of hibernation inducing factors. Finally, an overview of the potential of inducing a hypometabolic state in the human as related to the broad field of biomedicine will be given.

The approaches to modeling animal behavior presented in this Chapter are simple, but already they produce some interesting results. In general, the introduction of perturbation helps to simulate real behavior. For further projects, you might combine several behaviors and try to link certain inputs such as the angle of vision. Many other aspects of animal behavior can be modeled based on the examples presented in this Chapter. I wish you lots of fun.

This Chapter has presented just a small survey of the many possibilities offered by eToy. I suggest that you go to http://www.squeakland.org and check out the material available there.

Alice is a powerful environment. I have shown only a few of the most important aspects. The interested reader should read the Chapter dedicated to Alice in the book on Squeak mentioned at the beginning of this Chapter.