Take a mouse. A simple everyday mouse. We’ll call him Mr. Nippy.
Mr, Nippy is the sort of mouse who goes to the beach and gets sand kicked in his face by bigger mice. Those mice then abscond with Mr. Nippy’s best girl. So Mr. Nippy stops going to the beach. Or he takes the Charles Atlas Rodent Program and comes back and fights. Until now those were his only two options.
But now Mr. Nippy has another choice. Scientists have discovered that if they remove “a gene for a memory molecule in a brain circuit for social learning,” Mr. Nippy will come back time and time again. He won’t develop the old social avoidance. And sure, he might get his ass kicked again and again, but he’ll come back more often than an Irishman.
You know what, Mr. Nippy? You might want to forget these eggheads and just go with Charles Atlas.
