Scientists Produce Fearless Mice 499
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."
Which Batman episode was that? (Score:3, Interesting)
That was awesome.
Military applications ? (Score:5, Interesting)
That's because there is no military applications. You don't want the soldiers to become fearless, because if they do, they might say: "This war is wrong. I used to be too afraid to do anything about it, but now I suddenly feel fearless, and will get the heck away from here !" Basically, fearless soldiers will refuse to obey when given orders that they think are wrong, and cannot be forced to obey by fear of punishment.
What you want is soldiers that are more afraid of their commanding officers than the enemy; that way they'll follow orders.
Re:Good old PCP (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Good old PCP (Score:1, Interesting)
I can remember at least one case where that happened during Gulf war II (Operation Iraqi Freedom). IIRC a Pommy Tornado was shot down (and I think there were other cases) by US AA. Guess we know why.
Re:fear is a good thing (Score:2, Interesting)
I remember reading an article about a woman who was born with exactly this genetic fault. I don't remember if this research has anything to do with this specific person, or if it even worked in a similar way.
She didn't do stupid stuff like beating people up or jumping off a roof. Keep in mind that humans don't completely rely on instincts to judge most situations. She was at least as intelligent as other people, but she totally lacked common sense and the least bit of suspiciousness. Thus she was totally dependant to her friends who had to save her from trusting the ocassional asshole who tried to abuse her behaviour.
Obligatory SW comment (Score:2, Interesting)
Can they do the opposite as well? (Score:3, Interesting)
I wonder if they can use this knowledge to do the opposite: turn fear way up? How might that be used & abused? Say around election time?
The idea is
Re:In other news..... (Score:3, Interesting)
You joke, but there's already a cat parasite called toxoplasma where the complete life-cycle involves using a mouse or rat as a host, in addition to the final destination of a cat. To increase the chances of that happening, the parasite appears to mess with the rodents' brains, making them more likely to take risks and even actively search for the scent of cat urine. If that rodent gets eaten, the immature parasites can break free and make themselves at home in the cat.
Disturbingly, this same parasite is known to infect humans as well [guardian.co.uk], and there's evidence to suggest it might be altering our behaviour too...
Re:Good old PCP (Score:2, Interesting)
Imagine the evolutionary turn that could create - it would put much more emphasis on critical thinking, and if it weren't for fear, I think we'd end up with a smarter society. What I mean is, without an emotion to guide us away from dangerous activities, we'd only have our logic and reasoning to do that.
For example, take two mice. One is exceptionally smart, and the other is, well, not. Both of them still fear. If both of them stick to the wall of the box, they both survive another day.
Now take away that fear. The "dumb" mouse wanders into the middle of the box and is eaten by a cat. The "smart" mouse thinks "If I leave the side of this box, I open myself to attack from predators."
Now I know that that wouldn't happen with mice, but it could happen with some other lifeforms. The question is, without fear, would there be enough of a species that was smart enough to survive, or would it cause most specices to go extinct?
Re:since when does being alert = fearless? (Score:3, Interesting)
Predators don't panic at every little oddity in their environment. They are much more inclined to explore new stuff than run from it, and to stop and think rather than run away screaming. They learn fear of bad things from experience, rather than just being generally afraid of everything. They can relax, because they learn that not everything in their environment is a threat.
Conversely, prey animals can't cope with change or oddness, and tend to flee in a panic and hide in the shadows even when the "threat" is imaginary. They have difficulty learning what *really* is or isn't a threat, because they're unable to stop and examine the situation; indeed, they tend to react more strongly on repeat exposure to a fear stimulus, because now it's a fear-trigger point rather than becoming familiar. They can't relax, because omighod the bogeyman might get us at any moment. Generally not a fun existence.
Occurs to me that panic disorder in humans is fundamentally prey-animal behaviour. Inherited panic disorder also commonly occurs in other carnivorous and omnivorous species (cats and dogs). "Abnormal" boldness in prey species is much more rare, tho has been to some degree selected for in domestic livestock, to make them steady enough for humans to deal with. (Who wants to ride a horse that takes off bucking every time it thinks it hears an odd noise??)
Re:My Vision of the Future (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:since when does being alert = fearless? (Score:3, Interesting)