Fiction from "Nature" magazine, January 2012 issues

Four stories, all flash fiction length, all online. I found only one worthwhile - Locke's; I didn't even get the point of last two stories ("Rock 'n' roll aliens", & "The driver"). List below is in order of my preference, best first.

1. 19 January: Clayton Locke's "A game of self-deceit" (B); download: In a world where cloning, growing clone embyos fast in a lab, & imprinting the clone with master's braindump is common, a man nearly dies in accident but authorities resurrected his clone prematurely - clone that now has all legal rights to identity, including property, education & wife! But the master has a plan to take back his life...
2. 5 January: Ian Randal Strock's "1-9-4-blue-3-7-2-6-gamma-tetrahedron" (B); download; humor: A man has spent all his life hoping from a visit from his future self with tips so he can make a fortune! Title is a password he's memorized for quick identification of this future self.
3. 26 January: Ralph Greco Jr's "Rock 'n' roll aliens" (C); download: Aliens have handed the care of a "power orb" to someone in a music band, in return for certain worn cloths. What orb does or why the aliens are collecting old cloths is not known.
4. 12 January: Rahul Kanakia's "The driver" (C); download: Someone seems to have played bodyguards to Vlad since his young days, someone whom Vlad did a favor in future!

Related: Stories from Nature.