A team led by Brown University researchers has published detailed clinical trial results that show a tiny new brain sensor allowed a quadriplegic to open a prosthetic hand, control a robotic limb and move a computer cursor - using thoughts alone. The work, featured on the cover, offers important insights into the human brain and how to tap its power to improve the lives of people with spinal cord injury and other severe motor impairments. An editorial, “Is this the bionic man?,” also in this issue, examines the work led by John Donoghue, the Henry Merritt Wriston Professor and director of the Brain Science Program.

A research team led by John Donoghue, the Henry Merritt Wriston Professor and director of the Brain Science Program, has reported progress in patients whose brains have been implanted with a tiny chip called BrainGate Neural Interface System. One quadriplegic patient has learned to use his thoughts to operate a computer, turn on a TV set, open e-mail, play a video game and manipulate a robotic arm. "This is a proof of concept that you can get signals out of the brain that can provide useful controls," said Donoghue. "I see this as opening the door to a whole new kind of neurotechnology that will provide new opportunities for those who have paralysis or other movement disorders."

A sensor implanted in a paralysed man's brain has enabled him to control objects through just the power thought. The experimental set-up allowed the man, who has no limb movement at all, to open e-mail, play a computer game, and pinch a prosthetic hand's fingers. The research team that developed the sensor was led by John Donoghue, the Henry Merritt Wriston Professor and director of the Brain Science Program. The researchers hope the technology can one day be incorporated into the body to restore the movement of paralysed limbs themselves.

Managing a campus crisis like the one faced by Duke University in the wake of rape allegations earlier this year “is a skill that can be learned and taught, and one that is certainly burnished by experience, but it is rarely discussed or ranked among the attributes of successful college and university administrators,” writes Russell Carey, vice president and secretary of the University. Carey notes some steps that may help campus leaders anticipate and manage crises.

Eugene Charniak, professor of computer science and an expert on language development, discusses Artificial Intelligence on “Front Porch,” which airs on N.H. Public Radio weekdays at 6:30 p.m. Charniak is presenting a speech titled "Why Natural Language Processing is Now Statistical Natural Language Processing” at a special Dartmouth University conference July 13-15 that celebrates 50 years of Artificial Intelligence.

This article by Naomi Smith is one in a series written by Brown students in an advanced feature writing class taught by Tracy Breton, visiting professor of journalism. The students were assigned to write a story that conveyed a sense of place. They drew from a hat names of Providence streets and were told to search for someone or something on their designated streets that had never been written about in the same way before. The project, in its eighth year, presents aspects of city life from the perspective of college journalists.

Peter Berkowitz reviews History Professor Gordon Wood’s new book “Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different.” “A more learned or lucid guide to the founding than Gordon Wood would not be easy to find,” Berkowitz writes.

An article about advances in prosthetics includes information about research being done by Brown Professors John Donoghue and Roy Aaron. The Deal.com is a Web site for business and financial news. This article was also distributed on July 9 through CNet, which provides online content for a variety of Web sites, including the New York Times’ Technology Web page.

Barbara Stallings, an international political economist and senior member of the Watson Institute research faculty since 2002, has been appointed the new director of the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University. Stallings will begin her new duties immediately.

A small but growing number of engineers are using nature’s engineer - DNA - to create nanomaterials that can be used in everything from medical devices to computer circuits. A team from Brown University and Boston College is the first to use DNA to direct construction and growth of complex nanowires. Their work appears in Nanotechnology.