"It appears that this is a class effect, " New England Journal of Medicine Editor Jeffrey Drazen writes in a blunt editorial accompanying the three studies.

FORBES: More Pain For Pfizer

With the support of family, friends and teachers, Sonia earned scholarships to Princeton, where she graduated at the top of her class, and Yale Law School, where she was an editor of the Yale Law Journal, stepping onto the path that led her here today.

CNN: Transcript of Obama-Sotomayor announcement

The BBC's business editor Robert Peston said Mr Goodwin was in a "class of his own" in terms of the risks that he took at RBS - reflected in the size of the bailout required to rescue the company.

BBC: Former RBS boss Fred Goodwin stripped of knighthood

The writer, director, and editor, John Sayles, lays out the action so that every class and ethnic group participates in the corruption and the possible redemption of fictional Hudson City, New Jersey.

NEWYORKER: City of Hope

Mary Kirby, editor of the Airline Passenger Experience (APEX) magazine and blog, believes the first-class value proposition not only is diminishing, but also that the class will disappear in five years.

CNN: First-class vs. business: Is it worth the extra cost?

The editor of the survey, Phil Baty, said uncertainty in education in England could see world-class universities collapse into global mediocrity.

BBC: Glasgow University

EDITOR'S NOTE: Second in a three-part series on the loss of middle-class jobs in the wake of the Great Recession, and the role of technology.

NPR: Practically Human: Can Smart Machines Do Your Job?