Science Glance
TVNL COMMENT: This is an ALARMING development!
Scientists have discovered a drug that could erase fearful memories in humans.
The method, using existing blood pressure pills, could be useful for weakening or erasing bad memories in people with post-traumatic stress disorder, the researchers say.
Some ethicists see problems, question whether such treatments begin to alter what it means to be human.
"An interesting complexity is the possibility that victims, say of violence, might wish to erase the painful memory and with it their ability to give evidence against assailants," said professor John Harris, an expert in biological ethics at the University of Manchester, in an article in the Daily Mail. "Similarly criminals and witnesses to crime may, under the guise of erasing a painful memory, render themselves unable to give evidence."
TVNL Comment: This kind of thing can get out of hand fast. There are too many ways this kind of drug can be misused. It can be put in to the water supply to virtually create a society of people who would have no fear of walking themselves into a mass killing chamber, or giving up their freedom, or anything. Fear is a wonderful thing. It keeps us from danger. Having a drug eliminate that fear essentially removes our survival instincts. This is an ALARMING development!
Still worried that the Large Hadron Collider will create a black hole that will destroy the Earth when it's finally switched on this summer?
A NASA report on the last minutes of Space Shuttle Columbia cited problems with the crew's helmets, spacesuits and restraints, which resulted in "lethal trauma" to the seven astronauts aboard.
Some 30,000 pairs of his spectacles have already been distributed in 15 countries, but to Silver that is very small beer. Within the next year the now-retired professor and his team plan to launch a trial in India which will, they hope, distribute 1 million pairs of glasses. 
