Free Republic

Nootropics, the new staple ‘brain enhancers’ in Silicon Valley that purport to increase productivity and perception, exist in an unregulated legal gray area in the U.S. In Colombia, you can pick up even the shadiest kinds over the counter. I did just that. In the months before a recent trip to Colombia, off to visit an expat friend living there, I had been hearing about nootropics. Or “smart drugs,” as they’re referred to. Brain enhancers. Mental magic. Depending on which site you’ve read that’s proclaimed them the new “It” drug for bio-hackers of every stripe, all roads lead to the...

Students should be allowed to take “smart drugs” to boost their performance in exams, according to an academic. The use of drugs such as modafinil and Ritalin is no worse than sending children to a private tutor, said Vince Cakic, from the department of psychology at Sydney University. The comments are made in an article in the Journal of Medical Ethics. Some academics have claimed that smart drugs, or “nootropics”, which are often widely available over the internet, should be banned over long-term safety fears. Mr Cakic said universities in the future may attempt to impose random urine tests to...

THIS drug is peddled on every street corner in America, and is found in every country in the world. It is psychoactive, a stimulant and addictive. Users say that it increases alertness and focus, and reduces fatigue. But the high does not last and addicts must keep consuming it in increasing quantities. Put this way, sipping coffee sounds more like an abomination than the world's most accepted form of drug abuse. But centuries of familiarity have put people at their ease. In the coming years science is likely to create many novel drugs that boost memory, concentration and planning. These...

It would be hard to imagine improving on the intelligence of computer engineer Bjoern Stenger, a doctoral candidate at Cambridge University. Yet for several hours, a pill seemed to make him even brainier. Participating in a research project, Stenger downed a green gelatin cap containing a drug called modafinil. Within an hour, his attention sharpened. So did his memory. He aced a series of mental-agility tests. If his brainpower would normally rate a 10, the drug raised it to 15, he said. "I was quite focused," said Stenger. "It was also kind of fun." The age of smart drugs is...