At a brief count, one major source summarised between 300 and 350 new scientific papers last week. That's not bad for seven days in a quiet summer. Of course they varied both in subject and quality but characteristically they were claiming some important new discovery or breakthrough which was about to change the world. More careful examination,even of a sample, suggests that much of the information is trivial, or simply a variation on knowledge which is common in the scientific community. And so often a breakthrough promises more than it can deliver, or tells us of the several years we must wait until we can get practical benefit from the discovery - if ever.