JUDGES in the US are waking up to the potential misuse of brain-scanning technologies. Last month, Judge John Kennedy of the New Jersey Judiciary rallied 50 of his peers to discuss protecting courts from junk neuroscience.

In September, an Indian court jailed a murder suspect for life, partly on the basis of a brain scan. Meanwhile Cephos of Tyngsboro, Massachusetts, is one of several US companies that claim to be able to show whether someone is lying using a functional MRI brain scan. Ethical issues aside, many neuroscientists say the scans have not been tested rigorously enough to be …