Slowly but surely, scientists are getting closer to developing a drug that will allow people to eliminate unpleasant memories. The new issue of Neuron features a report from a group of Chinese scientists who were able to use a chemical - the protein alpha-CaM kinase II - to successfully erase memories from the minds of mice. The memory losses, report the authors, are "not caused by disrupting the retrieval access to the stored information but are, rather, due to the active erasure of the stored memories." The erasure, moreover, "is highly restricted to the memory being retrieved while leaving other memories intact. Therefore, our study reveals a molecular genetic paradigm through which a given memory, such as new or old fear memory, can be rapidly and specifically erased in a controlled and inducible manner in the brain."
Oh my Gah, how long until these are available on the NHS? Think of the possibilities. I could take a couple before I went to bed on a Sunday after an another appalling display at the Pigeons and wake up on Monday never having felt so alive. I could erase the latter part of the George Graham era - Chris Kiwomya need never have existed in Arsenal's history.
It could completely cure my post-traumatic stress disorder brought on by the sexual pummeling I received in the Glitter Gulch. This drug could liberate me from my earliest childhood memories of living in Germany and the time I had to do country dancing with Heidi Flaxman. Eeeeew!
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It could completely cure my post-traumatic stress disorder brought on by the sexual pummeling I received in the Glitter Gulch. This drug could liberate me from my earliest childhood memories of living in Germany and the time I had to do country dancing with Heidi Flaxman. Eeeeew!
Let's just ignore for a second any ethical questions surrounding such a drug and the terrifying motives the Chinese must have for it's development - perhaps they just want people to see Tiananmen square as a nice place for a picnic again - or what the CIA might do with it, this drug sounds awesome to me and I want boxes of it.
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