Scientists Produce Fearless Mice

Dotnaught writes "According to New Scientist, a Rutgers University geneticist has found that turning off a specific gene for the protein stathmin makes mice fearless. The story speculates that this research might improve treatment for phobias. It does not mention obvious military applications for the discovery. As noted in this Naval Officer's guide for managing fatigue, the use of amphetamines to stay alert, followed by sedatives to sleep, has a long tradition. Genetic treatments may offer an alternative to pharmaceuticals."

Re:On-the-fly...?

[Anonymous Coward]

As I understand it, it would be easier to "turn the gene on" than "off", because the gene produces a protein, so you would only have to introduce that protein "manually".

However, if you cannot remove the gene, there are other ways to prevent it from producing its protein. You can tinker with the transcription process (which parts of the ADN gets transcripted to ARN), or you can tinker with the translation part (how the ARN is used to produce proteins. That may not be easy, but certainly easier than removing a gene from the genome of a grown-up organism.

Re:My Vision of the Future

[WillerZ]

Dude, that was Tom & Jerry.

Re:i question the ethics of this

[Anonymous Coward]

"We have fear for a reason, and methink moderating it arbitrarily to within parameters that we specify will be more challenging than it is worth."

What is natural is not sacred, I wish people would get it out of their head 'tinkering with mother nature' is bad for us, mother nature gave us death and bloodshed, disease and death, and very limited abilities of mind based on what we eat and our genetics to begin with. We want to shed our naturalness if medicine and agriculture proves anything, we want to transcend our natural bodies and limitations of our minds, science and technology are the coup de grace to any kind of notion that 'mother nature knows best' if it did we wouldn't need science, nor technology to begin with.

We want to be in control of the natural forces and the forms around us to further our survival, rid our race of it's feral instincts and animal past for a more just, equitable and rational society, the fact that human beings are so weak as to use violence to solve their problems proves the point that many people who make up humanity are keeping it in a state of intellectual squalor. Natural things inside us would just as much push us towards eliminating ourselves, as it does sustain us. As always it's a double edged sword.

We have many other emotions 'for a reason' and many of them detrimental, i.e. tendencies towards wishful thinking and superstition, tendency toward indoctrination (think propaganda and economic idealogy, in the school system, etc), tendency to not critically analyze things being said (i.e. see how easy popular opinion is swayed, think how americans respond to the word 'communism' or 'socialist' for instance, smearing entire concepts and intellectual ideas simply because they are associated with tragedy, last time I looked capitalism was just as smeared as any other idealogy with it's own failures, creation of social problems and bloodshed.

Re:Good old PCP

[EiZei]

You'd end up with a Jacob's Ladder scenario where they become afraid of - and attack - friends and enemies at random.

Probably not unless overdosed. However PCP would still be utterly useless because it's a strong anesthetic, the soldiers would be just staring blankly and would have difficulties understanding even the most basic orders. You'd be better off giving them bottles of hard liquor.

Re:On-the-fly...?

[Otter]

But whether you're blocking the receptor with a chemical antagonist or a biological, it's still "pharmaceutical". The submitter's notion that gene therapy is an attractive "alternative to pharmaceuticals" is simply insane.

Incidentally, there are lab mouse strains that don't have many of the anxiety behaviors like center avoidance. The article gives the impression that the knockout animals are utterly unmouselike, which is untrue.

Interestingly however, rats are parttime predators

[gd23ka]

... and for that extra helping of protein hunt for insects and in the case of rats even small birds and other mice. Both rats and mice also eat unhatched eggs. They don't have fangs like dogs and cats, but anybody ever bitten by a rat will tell you they have razor sharp incisors and a powerful jaw and the bite hurts plenty.

However... to set the record straight, like most other mammals a rat will
only attack a human when cornered or provoked. I suggest you do not pickup
or otherwise try to pet the rat you find out in the streets but they are
actually some of the cutest mammals in existance and they
make excellent pets.

See the pages of the Rat & Mice Club of America http://www.rmca.org/ [rmca.org] if you're interested.

Re:fear is a good thing

[Anonymous Coward]

If you had read any cognitive science or behavioural psychology research, you would probably know that this is not how people generally work. Humans have a lot of difficulty making so called "rational decisions" when, for (e.g.) reasons of physiological impairment (due to their constitution or failed surgery, etc.), the parts of the brain that are most connected with emotions, like the amygdala, have lost their link to parts of the brain involved in more rational decision making. Basically, we can reason through all the pros and cons, but without emotion we have no way of evaluating what is actually more desirable.

Re:These already exist

[PitaBred]

Totally off topic, but that stuff about lemmings is completely wrong [abc.net.au] ;)