Above you can see a gorgeous rendition of what Spitzer saw, by a NASA artist, showing what is happening. Often disks of debris form around stars, and over millions of years solidify into lumps that turn into planets. In the case of young star LRLL 31, astronomers observed the lump forming within weeks - extremely unusual behavior. They speculate that this unusual pattern is probably caused by a companion planet or star whose gravitational pull is distorting the disk.

Astronomer James Muzerolle of Baltimore's Space Telescope Science Institute helped to discover the phenomenon, and will be publishing about it in Astrophysical Journal Letters. He said:

We don't know if planets have formed, or will form, but we are gaining a better understanding of the properties and dynamics of the fine dust that could either become, or indirectly shape, a planet. This is a unique, real-time glimpse into the lengthy process of building planets.

He discovered the phenomenon when he and his team noticed that the intensity of infrared light coming from the disk was changing dramatically over time - sometimes it would change a lot over just one week. They surmise that the change in intensity might come from more light being reflected by the disk's large lump as it passed behind its star (behind its star relative to Earth, that is).

Still, doesn't it seem kind of weird that this planet or star or whatever just wandered into the orbit of LRLL 31 so recently? And is already changing the shape of the star's accretion disk? Obviously a better explanation is that an alien civilization is building an orbital or other enormous space structure - the "planet" or "star" is actually their alien technology shaping matter together into a vast habitat for billions of aliens. Or maybe they'll make dozens of these "lumps" and turn them into generation ships. Mozorolle and his team may actually be catching a glimpse of the biggest engineering project the Earth has ever seen.

via NASA

Endocannabinoids interact with canniboid receptors the same way the chemical THC in marijuana does. According to a study published this afternoon in Science, the endocannabinoid system is more complex than previously believed. Sometimes a spike in endocannabinoids in the spinal cord releases neurotransmitter chemicals that make people more likely to feel pain.

A release about the article from Science puts it this way:

Often, in cases of chronic pain, neuron-to-neuron communication is bumped up in a specific area of the spinal cord. Endocannabinoids (which are the body's version of the THC in marijuana) have been thought to suppress this type of pain signaling, but Alejandro Pernía-Andrade and an international team of colleagues now show that the opposite may be true. They found that in rats and mice, painful stimuli can release endocannabinoids in the spinal cord, which act on a group of neuronal receptors called the CB1 receptors. This action reduced the release of key neurotransmitters that shuttle from one neuron to another, with the overall effect of making the neurons more excitable and thereby sensitizing the animals to certain forms of pain, or even to simple touch. In another experiment, on human volunteers, the authors found that the drug rimonabant, which blocks CB1 receptors, decreased pain sensitivity that had been induced in patches of the volunteers' skin.

We're a long way from being able to control this pain/not-pain system, but knowing that it's there means more research into it is inevitable. Already endocannabinoids are a target for a lot of hopeful pharmaceutical companies, who hope to manipulate the substance to treat everything from chronic pain to obesity.

My question is whether this substance could also become the target of military research too, since being able to control whether a person feels pain or not is a classic torture technique. And doing it cleanly, with drugs, could be classified as "humane" under many systems of regulation. Plus, what's a better way to play pharmaceutical good cop/bad cop than to administer a drug that causes pain - then eases it?

via Science

EATR stands for "Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot," referring to the way this robot will forage for its own power sources rather than having to return to base and power up.

Though the EATR is still in the experimental stage, Robotic Technology has high hopes for the robot. In a project spec, company representatives describe EATR as:

An autonomous robotic platform able to perform long-range, long-endurance missions without the need for manual or conventional re-fueling, which would otherwise preclude the ability of the robot to perform such missions. The system obtains its energy by foraging – engaging in biologically-inspired, organism-like, energy-harvesting behavior which is the equivalent of eating. It can find, ingest, and extract energy from biomass in the environment (and other organically-based energy sources), as well as use conventional and alternative fuels (such as gasoline, heavy fuel, kerosene, diesel, propane, coal, cooking oil, and solar) when suitable. For example, about 150 lbs of vegetation could provide sufficient energy for 100 miles of driving, depending on circumstances.

Of course there are no explicit mentions made of dead bodies here - FOX News came up with that meme - but "biomass" could include organic matter like dead animals. Though breaking down plant matter into fuel is a slightly different proposition than breaking down rotting corpses.

Still, there is another potential reason why the EATR could turn to corpse-gnawing. It is going to learn from its environment using a form of artificial intelligence, and figure out what is good to eat. The founder of Robotic Technology, Robert Finkelstein, has described the kind of artificial collective intelligence he hopes to imbue the EATRs with:

The 4D/RCS is a framework in which sensors, sensor processing, databases, computer models, and machine controls may be linked and operated such that the system behaves as if it were intelligent. It can provide a system with several types of intelligence (where intelligence is the ability to make an appropriate choice or decision), including reactive, deliberative, and creative intelligence . . . We are experimenting with a unique approach to achieving swarm behavior and distributed artificial intelligence by partitioning the 4D/RCS among individuals in the collective. In the concept of the Cognitive Collective, THE 4D/RCS is partitioned among multiple robotic vehicles and then reassembled across the collective. This allows robots which are individually reactive with limited intelligence to become deliberative and cognitive within the collective; or robots which are individually deliberative to gain greater intelligence and efficacy within the collective.

This kind of "collective intelligence" is similar to what AI enthusiasts also imagine might emerge from something like Google, which has vast, distributed computing power.

Are we looking at the beginnings of a human-eating, artificially intelligent robot swarm? Possibly. Or we might just be looking at a bunch of dumb, programmable vegetarians who don't need to dock in order to stay powered up.

via Robotic Technology

A group of European researchers discovered a ligand, or a chemical that binds with molecules, can soothe even the most anxious of creatures. As they write in an article published today in Science, they induced anxiety attacks in mice and men, administered the ligand XBD173, and found that their fear subsided immediately. The best part is that this treatment isn't addictive, doesn't take weeks to be effective, and doesn't make you feel dopey or drowsy.

According to a release from the authors of the study:

This finding suggests that the ligand, XBD173, might be a good candidate for use as a safe and fast-acting anti-anxiety agent. Current treatments like benzodiazepines often have unwanted side effects like sedation, tolerance, or symptoms of withdrawal after chronic use. Anti-depressant drugs are also sometimes administered to treat anxiety, but their beneficial effects only occur after several weeks of treatment. Looking for something new, Rainer Rupprecht and colleagues administered XBD173 to laboratory rats and observed that it prevented panic behavior almost immediately – without the rats building tolerance or any other unwanted side effects. They then performed a study among 70 healthy human men, involving a placebo group, and found that XBD173 initiated a fast anti-anxiety response without any withdrawal symptoms after prolonged use. The authors say that XBD173 promotes these calming effects through its modulation of the inhibitory neurotransmitter, GABA, and they suggest the ligand be considered for use in future clinical applications.

There are few things I would want to know before gulping down this drug. First of all, is anxiety the same thing as fear? The reason I ask is that it sounds like this could be an anti-fear agent, which might prevent risk aversion. That's right: a super soldier drug. What I'm saying is that I would like to know exactly which of my emotions are being muted by this substance. Is it just that I feel more mellow at a party, or am I likely to walk into the street in front of a car because I'm fearless?

The hopeful part of this drug is that there are no side effects known so far. It would be great to have a drug that reduced anxiety without making you feel like your entire consciousness had been reduced. However, until that whole super soldier drug thing is resolved, I'm still little bit suspicious.

via Science

Scientists have discovered that disabling series of genes in mice makes them engage in repetitive actions, similar to what humans do when they have schizophrenia, autism, or obsessive-compulsive disorder. But, as the researchers report in a paper to be published in Neuron tomorrow, medicines could be used to replicate the functions of the disabled genes, essentially switching off the craziness like a light. Is this a weapon or a cure?

Obviously the researchers are most interested in how their discovery could help bring stability into the lives of people suffering neurological distress. They hope to garget FKBP12, a key gene involved in creating the obsessive behaviors, for therapeutic techniques. NYU's Eric Klann, a researcher on the project, said:

[FKBP12] may be an ideal target for therapeutic drug development aimed at ameliorating some of the . . . related pathologies of neurological disease.

However, this research could just as easily lead to drugs that temporarily induce schizophrenic states. Exploring the cascade of effects created when tampering with FKBP12 has revealed that the gene is involved with enhanced memory as well. Would it be worth it to become temporarily OCD or autistic if it would give you an incredibly sharp memory for a few hours or days?

In twenty years, you could see rooms full of students taking tests who are hopped up on FKBP12 inhibitors, carefully regurgitating all the answers they memorized but unfortunately also feeling compelled to wash their hands every five minutes. And of course inducing schizophrenia in prisoners could become a new form of torture.

Brain deletion of FK-506 Binding Protein Enhances Repetitive Behaviors in Mice [via Neuron]

Image from Scorpions' awesome album Blackout. If you already knew that, you are an old fart like me.