An antibiotic robs pretty women of their power over men. I am not making that up.

Nature publishes a study on minocycline (remember that name, stupid men, it’s a kind of tetracycline), which not only kills germs but also keeps men from trusting attractive women just because they’re attractive:

Here we show that minocycline also reduces the risk of the ‘honey trap’ during an economic exchange. Males tend to cooperate with physically attractive females without careful evaluation of their trustworthiness, resulting in betrayal by the female. In this experiment, healthy male participants made risky choices (whether or not to trust female partners, identified only by photograph, who had decided in advance to exploit the male participants). The results show that trusting behaviour in male participants significantly increased in relation to the perceived attractiveness of the female partner, but that attractiveness did not impact trusting behaviour in the minocycline group. Animal studies have shown that minocycline inhibits microglial activities. Therefore, this minocycline effect may shed new light on the unknown roles microglia play in human mental activities.

“Microglia” are immune cells in your brain and spinal cord. Once something gets past the blood-brain barrier, they’re what keep neurons safe and steady. And apparently they have something to do with transmitting feelings of arousal.

So… this antibiotic, as well as killing the “honey-trap effect,” also appears to block the high from some amphetamines AND improve symptoms of depression and schizophrenia. (The researchers say, “Consistent with evidence that minocycline attenuates the subjective high feeling associated with dextroamphetamine treatment, the current results indicate that minocycline may reduce the effect of arousal and lead to sober decision-making.”)