arrestus

Arrestus is a fictional concept used in speculative biology and science fiction to describe a reversible pausing of cellular and organismal activity in response to environmental cues.

In the stories that employ arrestus, a regulatory network triggers a broad slowdown in metabolism, dampens gene expression, and stabilizes cellular structures. The resulting state is portrayed as largely reversible: organisms or tissues can resume normal function after the triggering condition dissipates, sometimes within minutes or hours. This portrayal often emphasizes viability and reversibility rather than death or permanent dormancy.

Origin and usage: The term appears in speculative fiction and related media as a device to explore stasis, resilience, and long-term survival. It has been used to describe technologies or organisms capable of entering and emerging from arrestus-like states, and is often discussed in fan communities and critical essays about science-fiction world-building.

Real-world context: There is no established biological process named arrestus. Real concepts that resemble arrestus include medical-induced hypothermia, metabolic suppression, cellular quiescence, hibernation, and anhydrobiosis. Scientists investigate analogous strategies for organ preservation, long-duration spaceflight, and stress tolerance, but these are not described as arrestus in current literature.