"This is the first step in the creation of a virtual time machine, which our children and grandchildren will use to study the history of Rome and many other great cities around the world, " he said.

BBC: NEWS | Europe | Ancient Rome brought back to life

"They have a well-oiled machine, " said Patrick, one of the authors of the national study, said of the Knoxville hospital unit.

NPR: Tenn. Hospital Treats Drug-Dependent Babies

That study was followed up in 2006 by researchers at Princeton who found that a Diebold machine could be hacked in less than a minute.

FORBES: Magazine Article

To study the neurology of tickling, Dr Blakemore and her team stuck volunteers into a magnetic-resonance-imaging machine (which monitors oxygen flow to the brain, and thus indicates the amount of activity in that organ's various parts).

ECONOMIST: Neuroscience: Tickled curiosity | The