Scientists have invented a way to erase bad memories. But should we?
Steve Ramirez knows how devastating painful memories can be. In 2015, when he was a doctoral candidate working on manipulating memories in mice, his close friend and lab partner, Xu Liu, died unexpectedly at the age of 37.
Haunted by memories of his friend, he found himself struggling to cope with his work and daily life.
Initially, Ramirez, who is now a professor of neuroscience at Boston University, wanted to numb the memories, which, on the face of it, may have seemed like a good idea. But the way he went about it had serious consequences. He turned to alcohol – and developed a severe drinking problem.
The realisation that things had gone too far came years later, in February 2021, during a very average day in the office.
“I was thinking, ‘Okay, I’ve had three drinks and it’s 11am. How many more can I have throughout the day without being a mess at night?’” he says. As he pondered this, a rehab facility phoned to offer help – concerned friends had contacted them on his behalf.
“It clicked that in order for me to go to rehab, I’d have to take leave from work, and I wouldn’t really be around my friends or family,” he says. “The idea of losing everything suddenly became very real.”