A team of scientists led by Indian-origin electrical engineers has shed new light on how the brain plans for and executes movements in reaction to a "go" signal."This research holds great promise in many areas of neuroscience, in particular human prostheses that can be controlled by the brain,” said Krishna Shenoy, who led the study with Maneesh Sahani, both electrical engineers at the Stanford School of Engineering.The existing hypothesis, known as “rise-to-threshold,” held that in anticipation...

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There's a quote attributed to Daniel Patrick Moynihan, which generally goes "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." Yet that's exactly what seems to have developed in the world of climate science. Within the mainstream scientific community, the basic physics that drives greenhouse warming hasn't been in dispute since it was discovered over a century ago, and the ability of greenhouse gasses to force climate change is apparent on other planets and within the Earth's past.But...

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Found: Planet that's blacker than coal

A planet orbiting a distant star is darker than coal, reflecting less than 1% of the sunlight falling on it, according to a paper published on Thursday.The strange world, TrES-2b, is a gas giant the size of Jupiter, rather than a solid, rocky body like Earth or Mars, astronomers said.It closely orbits the star GSC 03549-02811, located about 750 light years away in the direction of the constellation of Draco the Dragon. "TrES-2b is considerably less reflective than black acrylic paint, so it's truly...

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The Samsung Galaxy S II is widely believed to be the only real competition to the Apple iPhone. And you can't get it -- yet. Samsung's mobile division has finally announced a date for the release of its hotly anticipated phone, which has sold lavishly in foreign markets. Over 5 million people worldwide have already bought the flagship Android phone in the 85 days it has been on the market -- that's one sold every 1.5 seconds, the company said. And like Eddie Murphy, it's...

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Details of RIM's first QNX-based "Colt" smartphone leaked

Hot on the heels of Research In Motion's BlackBerry 7 smartphone lineup announcement, technology blog BGR.com has uncovered details of the company's first QNX-based device, a smartphone codenamed the BlackBerry Colt. The BlackBerry Colt will be powered by the same OS as the PlayBook tablet, "which we hope will make RIM competitive in the smartphone industry once again" said BGR. However, RIM seems to be stumbling further from the front of the smartphone race, even with a bevy of next generation...

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Facebook aims to replace texting

Facebook has launched an instant messaging service for mobile phones, similar to BlackBerry Messenger.The dedicated app, for iPhones and Android devices, allows users to contact individual friends or groups of people.Its release comes a month before Apple is due to unveil a similar product.Attention has been focused on mobile messaging recently because some of the London rioters were known to have used it to co-ordinate their movements.So far Facebook's mobile messenger is only available in the...

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Rare dinosaur tracks discovered in Oz

A group of more than 20 polar dinosaur tracks have been discovered on the coast of Victoria, Australia, offering a rare glimpse into animal behaviour during the last period of pronounced global warming, about 105 million years ago. The discovery is the largest and best collection of polar dinosaur tracks ever found in the Southern Hemisphere. “These tracks provide us with a direct indicator of how these dinosaurs were interacting with the polar ecosystems, during an important time in geological...

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