Music starts playing instantly, even faster than it would from a local CD that required spin-up time.

ENGADGET: Switched On: The musical mesh for the moneyed

Because an electron is small enough for quantum effects to be routine, it is perfectly possible for such a spin to be pointing up and down at the same time.

ECONOMIST: Quantum computing

Pictures of the prime minister sipping champagne in front of abstract paintings in London, may not be quite what his spin doctors had in mind, at a time when Labour is trying to shore up its support in its working-class heartlands in northern England.

ECONOMIST: The Tate Modern