MIT researchers just published a paper in Nature which describes how to reduce “learned fear” in mice by manipulating molecular pathways. They suggest this as a way of treating emotional disorders. Useful if you have emotionally disturbed mice in your lab.
Of course, you wouldn’t want drugs that can eliminate all fear – it’s too useful a survival mechanism.
Otherwise, soldiers might behave like Dave Lister, in the Red Dwarf episode “Polymorph“. The crew meets a creature that feeds on negative emotion. After it sucks all the fear out of Lister, he volunteers to strap on a neutron bomb and go after the beast. Hilarity ensues.