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Building a new brain? It's easy; What MPs and slime mould have in common; Harry Potter and the Seismic ShocksThe science of slime-ball behaviourThe distance between an amoeba and an MP is even smaller than you thought. Writing in Current Biology, Dr Chris Thompson and Dr Jason Wolf of the University of Manchester argue that every organism is genetically programmed to cheat the system and has to be policed to stop putting its needs ahead of society. Their study of slime mould has shown that even these microscopic organisms respond to competition and are not above cheating in a bid to gain the upper hand. 'Using slime mould allows us to examine social behaviour in its most basic form,' says Thompson. 'Even though they are single cell organisms that just divide, we have shown they do have a complex social life that involves cheating and coercion.'Making a brain? It's not as hard as you might thinkA model that replicates the functions of the human brain is feasible in 10 years, according

Australia's swine flu vaccine works safely with just one dose, which means supplies will go further than thought, early results have shown.

If you like tweets that look like C++ code rather than the natural language, you’ll love Facebook’s new feature that lets you tag people, groups, events, apps, and all kinds of things in statuses and Publisher posts. Us ordinary people think it’s a disaster waiting to happen. Facebook’s name tags that let you identify people in [...]

Most of us are guilty. We love reality shows. I think a great host makes all the difference.Contributor: Ana BlancoPublished: Sep 10, 2009

THOSE who thought Paris Hilton wouldn't be remembered years from now, shouldn't bet on it.

Ellen DeGeneres is known for being nice. But the new 'American Idol' judge said she's ready to be honest with the show's contestants, good or bad. 'I think it's going to be hard, but as my career has grown. ... I've learned how to be tougher and learned how to say no,' DeGeneres said Thursday, a day after her addition to the show was announced. 'I think I can do it, and I think I can do it in a respectful way.'

Wait have we already had twitter drama the Lindsay Lohan edition? Probably, but this morning she got her fingers ready and started going off on one. I am not entirely sure what any of this means because I don’t think the English language recognizes these ramblings but she was obviously pissed off at Samantha Ronson for [...]

Microsoft launches Windows 7 advertising Friday, with a spot that is so happy that you'd think the company might be experiencing something akin to joy, or at least relief.

When attorney Claire Kubik thinks she has the perfect life her world is shattered when her husband is arrested by the FBI for high crimes when he was in the military.Contributor: Jeff GedgaudPublished: Sep 10, 2009

barking_at_airplanes writes 'Some called him crazy a few years ago when he joined Microsoft to run the Open source Software Lab, but Sam Ramji endured and made real differences to how Microsoft treats open source and how open source people view Microsoft. Ramji is now heading back to Silicon Valley to join a cloud computing startup. Sam comments in his announcement: '46 months later, I am amazed at the changes that have occurred for the company, for the team I belonged to, and the sentiments of the industry.' It's a statement which, 46 months ago, few Slashdotters would have thought could come true! With Sam leaving, can Microsoft's positive momentum into open source continue successfully? Bill Hilf says they're 'actively seeking someone to fill Sam's shoes.'' of this story at Slashdot.