You just know where this will lead one day. Crooks steal your money then clear your mind of their faces. Cops rough up people for information then make them forget the beating. Stole some money at work? Pop a pill to forget it and easily pass a lie detector test because you have no memory of doing it. Ah, so many abuses, so little time…

Scientists Wipe Mice Memories, Forgetting the Past Could Be a Pill Away

Now a radical new technology may dramatically alter life as we know it. The Georgia College of Medicine has invented a chemical treatment that molecularly wipes traumatic or intense memories. The chemical, successfully tested on lab mice, could be adapted to human physiology according to research and could one day be available to treat a variety of psychological ailments or even for elective use.

The approach targets a specific chemical in the brain. This chemical, a protein, plays a crucial role in the formation of memories. When recalling a specific painful event, a drug developed by the researchers overloads this mechanism, causing an excess of the protein to be produced. This causes the brain to overload and chemically wipe all trace of the negative memory, without any apparent physiologically harmful side effects.

Scientists say that the treatment could be applied to humans and could one day wipe memories of traumatic events, a common cause of psychological problems. While the researchers caution that memories are an important part of the learning process, they also acknowledge that some memories cause the mind more harm than good.