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Controlling Fear By Modifying DNA

Posted by Soulskill on from the turning-somebody-into-one-of-the-x-men-would-also-subdue-fear dept.

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."

1 of 105 comments (clear)

  1. Democrats want you to fear Republicans! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Boy, didn't see this one coming.

    http://thefederalist.com/2014/05/07/another-survey-confirms-journalists-are-overwhelmingly-liberal/

    "If a newsroom has a good chance of not even having someone of the Republican variety within its confines, it’s a newsroom that probably struggles to even come close to understanding the perspective of GOP voters. It’s a newsroom that might struggle to fairly cover or might completely ignore stories about tax burdens on families, systemic failures of the welfare state, the benefits of gun ownership, or the evils of a serial-murdering abortion doctor in Philadelphia (just speaking hypothetically here)."

    So in other words, it's not fair. Republicans get misrepresented by journalists in a big way. Oh and we all know the bias we find in educational institutions don't we? Oh and don't even think about any bias towards socialism in the popular media. It's almost like a plot!

    It's no wonder that Republicans are so hated around here, where so many of you geeks and nerds are young and have barely begun paying taxes and a often fresh out of university. But I still have to ask, what is so bad about individual liberty, natural rights and limited government huh? Why are you all so gung ho for the nanny state, big government and the welfare system?

    Do any of you realize you are biased against conservatives because you have been *trained* to be? No one thinks it might be a good idea to unplug that cable from the back of your heads for a few minutes and let reason take over for a bit, and to see what comes from that?

    No one?