The fact these bite-size stories can be enjoyed in a five-minute coffee break at work means they fit neatly into fast-paced lifestyles of many in the modern world.
Over in Germany, researchers unveiled a technique that harnesses the power of lightning to break up concrete into usable building materials and scientists at MIT built a tiny, caterpillar-size robot that can transform into almost any shape.
Only America, five times its size, has more foreign students, and with fees for local students capped, Britain's universities break even only by charging overseas ones what the market will bear.