Stories from Nature magazine, August 2013 issues

5 stories, all flash fiction length, all online. Only one that somewhat held my interest was Hecht's.

List below is in order of my preference, best first. Links on author fetch more fiction by author.

1. 29 August: Jeff Hecht's "The speed of dark energy" (B); download: A physicist has discovered that dark energy moves faster than light. And landed a job that promises faster execution of automated trades in the stock market. Only there is a minor glitch about its practicality...
2. 22 August: Marko Jankovic's "Alone" (B); download: Having perfected a robot that thinks it is human, the CEO of the company making it is getting the feeling he's the only human among his automaton-like colleagues.
3. 8 August: Milo James Fowler's "One meal a day" (B); download: There's a bit of "To Serve Man" (download as part of a larger package) here, though the story had a far lesser impact than that classic.
   
   A shapeshifting alien is on earth, looking for another of his species - a run away price who's believed to be hiding here.
4. 15 August: Grace Tang's "Time heals all wounds" (C); download: A man experiencing hallucinations is given a new brain surgery that results in an unexpected side effect - time seriously slows down for the patient whenever he is experiencing great emotion!
5. 1 August: Lee Hallison's "The best of us" (C); download: Human scavengers are hunting for usable stuff over an earth gone dead & dangerous, & with most people recently dead. No cause is given for the apocalypse; story appears to be about the toughness & human emotions among the survivors. 

Related: Stories from Nature magazine.