At the Radcliffe hospital in Oxford, England, in March 2002, doctors wheeled Kevin Warwick, a professor of cybernetics at the University of Reading, into an operating theater for what has to be one of the world's only cases of elective neurosurgery on a healthy patient. Warwick belongs to a rare breed of scientists who experiment on themselves. He had volunteered to go under the knife so surgeons could hammer a silicon chip with 100 spiked electrodes directly into his ...

Three years ago, Dr Steven Laureys, a neurologist at the University of Liege in Belgium, examined a comatose 43-year-old Belgian patient, Rom Houben, who for the past 23 years had been assumed by medical professionals to be brain dead. Laureys, who runs a coma study group specializing in such cases, performed sensitive clinical and imaging tests on Houben and made a startling discovery: the former engineering student who suffered a brain injury in a car accident in 1983 was ...

Ten-man Ghana overcame Brazil 4-3 on penalties in the Under-20 World Cup final in Cairo to become the first African side to win the tournament. Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu scored the winning penalty after Brazil's Maicon had fired over the bar when a successful spot-kick would have handed Brazil the title for a record fifth time. In a match of few chances, Ghana, who are also African champions, defied the odds to take the trophy out of Europe and South America ...

Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo has been ruled out of Portugal's crucial final World Cup qualifier against Malta on Wednesday with an ankle injury. Ronaldo played with the injury in Portugal's 3-0 home victory over Hungary on Saturday but lasted just 27 minutes before limping off. Portugal, who have made a late charge in World Cup qualifying after looking set to make an ignominious exit, need to beat Malta in the home game to be sure of a place in ...

Sevilla ended Real Madrid's unbeaten start to the La Liga season with a 2-1 victory on Sunday which underlined the Spanish title race will be a three-horse race. The result leaves Barcelona, who beat Almeria 1-0 on Saturday, at the top with 18 points from six games, with Real and Sevilla sharing second place on 15 points. Real came to the Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan with a perfect record from five league games, but missing leading scorer Cristiano Ronaldo, who ...

Manchester United's eight-game winning run came to an abrupt end as they salvaged a fortunate 2-2 home draw against Sunderland in the English Premier League on Saturday. Sunderland took the lead in the early first half through Darren Bent before Dimitar Berbatov equalized with a stunning volley just after the break. But Kenwyne Jones headed the visitors in front and they looked to be holding on for a deserved victory until Anton Ferdinand deflected Patrice Evra's shot past his ...

Real Madrid coach Manuel Pellegrini has confirmed that winger Cristiano Ronaldo has been ruled out of his side's La Liga clash with Sevilla on Sunday with an ankle injury. The 24-year-old Portugal international picked up the injury in Real's 3-0 victory over Marseille in the Champions League during the week having scored twice in the game. Ronaldo was keen to be involved in the clash at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan stadium, but Pellegrini revealed the club's medical staff have taken ...

Manchester United substitute Michael Owen broke Manchester City hearts with a dramatic winning goal deep into injury time at Old Trafford on Sunday. Owen cropped up in the fifth minute of added time to latch on to a Ryan Giggs pass and beat Shay Given with a trademark neat finish to give United a 4-3 victory in a pulsating seven-goal derby. City hit back to equalize three times, with Crag Bellamy's second in the last minute of normal time looking ...

Top seed Roger Federer fended off a resurgent 12th seed Robin Soderling with two razor-thin tie-breaking sets to reach the U.S. Open semifinals 6-0, 6-3, 6-7 (6-8), 7-6 (8-6). Federer on Wednesday unleashed 28 aces and kept unforced errors to 26, compared with his Swedish opponent's 45, to pull the win. Federer succeeded in winning 86 percent on his first serve alone. The Swiss tennis player is seeking his sixth consecutive U.S. Open win, which would cap a year in ...

Top seed and defending champion Roger Federer cruised into the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open on Monday after a 7-5 6-2 6-2 win over 14th seed Tommy Robredo of Spain. Federer will now play Sweden's Robin Soderling, the third grand slam in succession that the two will have met -- including the French Open final -- to qualify for the semifinals of a grand slam for a record 22nd straight time. "Robin has got a big game and we had ...