The U.S. Defense department has tested some spooky weapons, but those involving mind control and telepathic attack may be near the top of the list. A newly declassified 1998 document released under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act (download the pdf here), describes potential weapons for crowd control, such as a microwave gun that could beam words directly into people’s ears, and an electromagnetic pulse that causes epilepsy-like seizures.

The power of thought just got a lot more powerful. Scientists have created a cranial implant that allows monkeys to control a robotic arm just by thinking about it. Using brain signals, the monkeys persuaded the arm to pick up and feed them chunks of zucchini, cucumbers and apples.

Last winter, neuroscientist Andrew Schwartz and his team at the University of Pittsburgh trained monkeys to think about reaching for food (the animals' arms had been temporarily restrained). Using almost 200 electrodes