42: The Answer to Almost Everything — Season 1, Episode 82: Why do we lose our memory?

Episode synopsis

We've all experienced it: a name that slips our mind or a new password. Forgetting is annoying and sometimes embarrassing. But how does the brain decide what we forget? There's a kind of competition among our memories. Stronger, more repeated impressions prevail over weaker ones. But are these erased memories lost forever? This question has been the subject of debate for decades. But in recent years, a new idea has emerged! It's possible that memories still exist. "If we stimulate the cells, the memories become available again. So, memory survives the forgetting process, but it only re-emerges under the right conditions. In a sense, this could mean that we lose the address of the memory, but not the memory itself," explains neuroscientist Tomás Ryan. Could we one day recover all our memories?

About 42: The Answer to Almost Everything

What would we be without mucus? Can we live on water? How much does life weigh? Finding out the answers is the aim of ARTE's new science show. In a nod to Douglas Adams's "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", where the figure 42 is the ultimate answer to all questions, 42 tries to provide the answers.

More episodes from Season 1

• E1Can we dig our way through the Earth?
• E2Could We Live on the Moon?
• E3Should we use lotteries instead of elections?
• E4How Much Does Life Weigh?
• E5Will we move onto the water?
• E6Can Algorithms Make Us Healthy?
• E7What if there were no mucus?
• E8How do we solve the nuclear waste puzzle?
• E9What if Fear Didn't Exist?
• E10What if the ice disappeared?
• E11Do We All hear the Same Thing?
• E12Are we too pessimistic?