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"I can remember when the first pulsars were discovered. I was able to go and sit down and listen to graduate students talking about what their theories, to explain what pulsars really were."
- Vernor Vinge

Shere  
  Destroys cells so that memory cannot be deduced from the cells of the person even in death.  

In the far future world of the novel, it is possible to probe the cells of a dead person and retrieve a substantial amount of information, including emotions, thoughts, and beliefs. People who are in danger of being captured by their enemies use a special drug that causes these traces to be unreadable.

An Ixian probe can raid the mind even of a dead person," Geasa explained. "Shere is a drug that protects you from the probe. Your cells will be totally dead before the drug effect is gone.
Technovelgy from Heretics of Dune, by Frank Herbert.
Published by Putnam in 1984
Additional resources -

It does seem hard to believe that it would be possible to probe your cells after you are dead, and retrieve anything like thoughts. However, research done on planaria and other simple organisms suggests that, since particular kinds of training (like finding their way through mazes, or resistance to being photophobic) have an effect on the tissues of the animal, it may be possible to deduce something about the organism's training or experiences from the cadaver.

More information on this topic is available in the entry for RNA Shots, from A World Out of Time by Larry Niven.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Heretics of Dune
  More Ideas and Technology by Frank Herbert
  Tech news articles related to Heretics of Dune
  Tech news articles related to works by Frank Herbert

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