June 11, 2012 | Rohan

It’s great fun taking things apart to see how they work. A team from Colorado have worked out how to make a table-top X-ray machine. If it weren’t for the predicted $1-million price tag, I’d be planning to spend hours using one to look inside things.

It currently takes huge machines that cost many millions to produce the kind of ‘soft’ X-rays this portable device will make. The small size and (relatively) low cost mean that loads more scientists will be able to do new research.