By Mark Beeson, University of Western Australia

Getting on for 14 billion years ago the universe suddenly sprang into life.

I can’t actually do the math, as they say, but I’m happy to accept the word of those who can that the physics is unambiguously nailed down. But for all their undoubted brilliance, mathematicians and physicists don’t know what was going on before the big bang.

By Martijn Gommeren, Cardiff Metropolitan University

Have you considered buying a 3D printer? A major spectacle at the Consumer Entertainment Show in Las Vegas for the last two years, they’re now available for as little as £300 – around the same price as the latest Xbox One or Playstation 4.

By Angelo Niko Grubišić, University of Southampton

SpaceX is attempting a huge feat in spacecraft engineering.

It is seeking to land the first stage of its Falcon 9-R rocket on a floating platform at sea. Normally this would end up at the bottom of the ocean. If successful, SpaceX will shake the rocket launch market, by shaving millions of dollars off launch costs.

By Nick Butler, Lund University and Sverre Spoelstra, Lund University

By Todd Lane, University of Melbourne

By Alex Ford,University of Portsmouth

Demon vs killer shrimp sounds like the latest CGI movie to come out of Hollywood. But in fact these are two particularly pernicious crustaceans that have been making their way westward across Europe from countries surrounding the Black Sea, eradicating native freshwater rivals en route.