Neuroscientists in Brooklyn successfully erase memories with drugs

Researchers at SUNY Downstate Medical Center have apparently been tinkering with selectively erasing the memories of rats with a mysterious drug they call ZIP. In the trial, mice who had learned to avoid an electrified area of their cage, once injected with ZIP, appeared to have forgotten about the electrification, and ceased to avoid the area. They have also successfully made the rats forgot about their distaste for a substance that had previously made them sick. Dr. Todd Sacktor, head of the project, believes that the drug may be used in humans one day, and that it may also help enhance memories as well. We don't really have any specific info about the drug itself, or how it works, so until then... we'll just have to keep hoping that the lyrics to Use Your Illusion II fade on their own.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 8th 2009 10:48PM]

are you crazy?
use your illusion II had great lyrics.
don't cry, you could be mine, knockin' on heaven's door...

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 8th 2009 10:56PM]

I'm sorry but I must comment on that picture on how awesome it is. /ends run on sentence

[Happyman Posted Apr 8th 2009 10:58PM]

I'm sorry but I must comment on how awesome that picture is. /ends run on sentence.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 9th 2009 12:00AM]

It'll be a cold day in hell before this drug gets anywhere near my brain.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 10th 2009 6:10AM]

They're turning mice into rats!!!

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 9th 2009 1:24AM]

Ummm... this american life did a story about these guys two years ago on their tv show...

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 9th 2009 5:46AM]

OK, so they have not targeted specific memories and they don't quite have a pill form of it yet, but as a former Infantryman I was thinking, what a GREAT weapon. What would Kim Jong do if a bomb of this sort landed outside his palace and erased ALL of his memories?? Think about it.....

[Sofabutt Posted Apr 9th 2009 3:20AM]

Of course no long term studies have been done to determine side effects....

And if I managed a drug firm, you can bet your ass I just paid 50 million dollars to release an article that portrayed this drug in a positive light....

It's not about the truth, it's about sales. And it's not about health, it's about sales...

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 9th 2009 3:57AM]

I personally see this as important research. If I could erase specific parts of my memory I would. As a sufferer of PTSD I find the very notion that someone would want to ban research on this insulting and offending. This research may some day help me and millions of others. And the Alzheimers benefit is a bonus. If the idea of ban all reserch that offends us had prevailed modern medicine would not have been a reality. How the frigging hell do you think Da Vinci made those detailed Anatomic drawings?
Stupidity and ignorance annoys me. Let's ban that.

[GoVegan Posted Apr 9th 2009 7:14AM]

Animal testing is not essential for medical research in fact on the contrary billions of dollars are wasted on specious science which only sets back real medical research. Animal models do not equate to good human models in nearly all cases.

Some examples:
Smoking was thought to be non-carcinogenic because smoking-related cancer is difficult to reproduce in lab animals. Consequently many continued to smoke and to die from cancer.

Animal experiments on rats, hamsters, guinea pigs, mice, monkeys, and baboons revealed no link between glass fibers and cancer. Not until 1991, due to human studies, did OSHA label it carcinogenic.

Despite the ineffectiveness of penicillin in rabbits, Alexander Fleming used the antibiotic on a very sick patient since he had nothing else to try. Fortunately, Fleming's initial tests were not on guinea pigs or hamsters because it kills them. Howard Florey, the Nobel Prize winner credited with co-discovering and manufacturing penicillin, stated: 'How fortunate we didn't have these animal tests in the 1940s, for penicillin would probably never been granted a license, and possibly the whole field of antibiotics might never have been realized'.

Many more facts can be found here:
50 Disasters of Animal Experimentation
http://vivisection-absurd.org.uk/50dis.html


It is also ethically unacceptable, and as for Leonardo Da Vinci he said "One day the world will look upon research upon animals as it now looks upon research on human beings".

[Bones3D Posted Apr 9th 2009 4:39AM]

Bet it'll be all the rage with rapists who want to enjoy their victims' first times... again, and again, and again...

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 9th 2009 5:57AM]

There is a glaring error in the engadget post. It doesn't selectively erase anything! It erases EVERYTHING.

[GoVegan Posted Apr 9th 2009 8:27AM]

Someone like Laura June who makes sick jokes about innocent creatures being tortured can hardly be expected to have a comprehensive grasp of the English language. Remember we are talking about Engadget editors here, a rather docile breed of people. Perhaps they should end up the recipients of electrification, drug abuse and finally be killed. Just a thought...

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 9th 2009 8:41AM]

Well, if this thing takes off, Gob Bluth won't have to pop a forget-me-now every time he makes a huge mistake. And clowns may no longer need to carry rags soaked in ether. Ah, progress!

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 9th 2009 11:50AM]

I was thinking Eternal Sunshine as well, like many people here, but I can't help but think that Cheech and Chong demonstrated a quite more consistent schedule of memory loss over their lives.

[golfnz34me Posted Apr 9th 2009 12:43PM]

So we're all going to feel comfortably numb, then?

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 9th 2009 5:08PM]

I don't think this drug has too many pros to outweigh the cons....first there was Rufie....and now ZIP?....if a rapist got his hands on this..GG

[collide007 Posted Apr 9th 2009 11:05PM]

Well, confidential agreements are going to be a thing of past soon wont they. A soon as your contract is up, you will have no recollection of the past 3 years, just a nice big paycheck that you gave up because you fell in love with a botanist.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 10th 2009 2:17PM]

xanax, much?

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 12th 2009 11:14PM]

my girlfriend works in that lab... she is so cute