Scientists are currently working on memory wiping technology similar to ‘Men in Black’.
The infamous neuralyzer. It was one of the key props in the movie, ‘Men in Black’ that had the entire audience saying they wish they had one of their own. After all it was the device that allowed Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones to wipe characters’ memories with only a flash of light.
Now, according to reports, researchers at the UC Davis Center for Neuroscience and Department of Psychology have managed to erase specific memories from mice using only a beam of light.
In something that seems to come out of a sci-fi novel, researchers were able to specifically delete a particular memory from genetically modified mice.
In a series of tests presented in a paper by Brian Wiltgen and Kazumasa Tanaka from UC Davis, mice were genetically modified so that their nerve cells would glow when activated. Those mice then found themselves having memory cells in their hippocampus firstly mapped when a specific learned response to an event — being shocked when placed in a cage — was recalled, and then zapped with a beam of light aimed directly at those specific cells. [Source]
It will be a long time before the neuralyzer app will hit your Iphone but, it is interesting to note that one thing from the Men in Black movie is becoming a reality.
