It's the main tool of every self-respecting Boy Scout: the Swiss army knife. But how did something that began as a simple tool become a global brand? An exhibition marks the knife's development over the past 125 years. 

Make your own Swiss army knife - who could resist such a challenge? Indeed, visitors are queuing up to try out one of the highlights of a new exhibition at the Forum for Swiss History in Schwyz. It's the brain child of curator Pia Schubiger.

"The army knife has really become a cult object," Schubiger said. "Everyone here knows it and has one."

Schubiger said that in her father's generation, it was tradition for fathers to pass their knives on to their sons, and to tell them "every good Swiss boy has a pocket knife."

Japanese railway workers face enforced "smile scans" every morning in a bid to boost their customer services, it has been claimed.

More than 500 staff at Keihin Electric Express Railway are expected to be subjected to daily face scans by "smile police" bosses.

The "smile scan" software, developed by the Japanese company Omron, produces a sweeping analysis of a smile based on facial characteristics, from lip curves and eye movements to wrinkles.

Scientists have created human sperm for the first time from stem cells.

The research, carried out at Newcastle university, might enable infertile men to have children, while provoking another ethical debate on the progress of reproductive biology.

Karim Nayernia, project leader, said the "in vitro designed" sperm produced in his laboratory looked fully mobile and functional under the microscope, though more research would be needed before IVD sperm were used to fertilise human eggs. The work might lead to a fertility treatment in five to 10 years, he said.