Dr Gruber expects to have a commercial sperm-sorter ready next year, and Arryx has already signed a deal to deploy it with a British dairy.

ECONOMIST: Male and female sperm can be sorted using lasers

Most interesting, I learned that many science fiction readers are Rationals in the Keirsey Temperament Sorter, which tells me that geekdom is as innate as left-handedness.

FORBES: How To Be a Real Geek Girl (in 3 not-so-easy steps)

Each sock comes with its own RFID chip, which can be "read" by a NFC (near field communication) device known as a sock sorter, which in turn communicates via Bluetooth with an iPhone.

BBC: Who wants hi-tech socks for Christmas?

Using tumor samples from wo-men with breast cancer, he used a gadget called a cell sorter to sift through dozens of different proteins on the surface of breast cancer cells, searching for patterns that might identify stem cells.

FORBES: Cancer Killer

As each pair has its own unique identifier, finding a lost pair amongst a pile of identical socks is as easier as scanning them with the sock sorter, and waiting until the iPhone app beeps to tell you it has located the exact match.

BBC: Who wants hi-tech socks for Christmas?

She also worked with a designer, Kathryn Sykora, to find antique pieces that were both decorative and functional, such as a 1930s industrial mail sorter from Paris that displays knickknacks and organizes fliers and a vintage Belgian railway sign that's been converted into a foyer table.

WSJ: A Gossip Girl's Main Stage