Scientists Demand Overhaul of Europe's $1.4 Billion Brain Project

European scientists have called for the review of a major neuroscience initiative, criticizing the program for taking a narrow approach that they say is likely to fail.

 More than 150 researchers signed an open letter to the commission in charge of Europe's Human Brain Project (HBP), a 10-year, $1.4 billion (1 billion euros) effort to simulate the human brain on a computer. The researchers who signed the letter are threatening to boycott the project if their recommendations are not heeded.

 "We wish to express the view that the HBP is not on course and that the European Commission must take a very careful look at both the science and the management of the HBP before it is renewed," the scientists wrote in the open letter. [Top 10 Mysteries of the Mind]