Controlling Fear By Modifying DNA 105
An anonymous reader writes "The fear of flying or of skittering spiders can mean more than just a momentary increase in heart rate and a pair of sweaty palms. A hard-core phobia can lead to crippling anxiety. Now an international team of researchers says it believes it has found a way to silence the gene that feeds phobic fear via a novel mechanism of gene regulation associated with fear extinction. The notion appears to be that phobias arise from experiences that have left an outsized imprint on gene expression, and that undoing this can undo the anxiety itself. The study was published this month (abstract) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."
Easier than that. (Score:4, Informative)
Simple feed the children LEAD. IT will suppress the fear triggers and make them far more hostile.
If you want to build the perfect warrior, then just do what the romans and the vikings did. Lead dosing.
Western medicine at it again. (Score:3, Informative)
They found that learning to extinguish fear causes expression of a gene.
In common western medicine fashion, the important thing here is not that behavioural methods are effective in changing gene expression, but we can now remove the stimulus for gene expression (a persons conscious control) and package it up into a pill to sell for profit!
Re:Democrats want you to fear Republicans! (Score:5, Informative)
Does it occur to you that we're biased against conservatives because people who self-identify as conservative keep saying deeply stupid things in public. See just about any Republican politician, or check out the insane conservatives that use tags like #TGDN, #TCOT, and #REDNATIONRISING on Twitter. They just keep feeding each other fake quotes, and reinforcing a hatred of anyone who isn't as delusional as they are. They think that intelligent liberal people are their enemy, when really the enemy is the "conservative" media that filled their heads with nonsense.
Conservative didn't always mean crazy/stupid, but it sure does now.
>what is so bad about individual liberty, natural rights and limited government huh?
Nothing, it's the superstition, authoritarianism, racism, homophobia, and opposition to women's rights that's wrong with the ignorant conservatives.
Re:Democrats want you to fear Republicans! (Score:3, Informative)
I don't even have to have all that experience.
'Democrats' - tax & spend
'Republicans' - just spend (~80% of the federal deficit is from Reagan & 2 Bushes)
Which one actually sounds fiscally more conservative?
Neither are really responsible, but at least one tries to have the cash to spend.