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The article looks at the geology and biology of Antarctica as of 2013, focusing on bodies of water located under glacial ice sheets. The author recounts his visit to the region around Subglacial Lake Whillans, Antarctica, with a research team including glaciologist Slawek Tulaczyk. Topics include the use of ice-penetrating radar to detect buried lakes, the technological challenge of drilling down into the lake, and the discovery of diatom shells in samples from the lake.

An article on the causes of weather is presented. For decades, theories of airborne dust, soot, and other atmospheric aerosols as nucleation sites for droplets of water vapor have dominated atmospheric physics and meteorology. Without these particles, there is no precipitation. However, research by microbiologists suggests that airborne bacteria may play a greater role in the nucleation process than previously thought. Bacteria commonly found on the surfaces of plant leaves can catalyze the formation of ice crystals at warmer temperatures than pure water, forming ice nuclei, and thereby allowing rain and snow particles to grow and eventually fall to Earth. This cause of atmospheric nucleation offers a new perspective on not only the physics of clouds, but also their biology.

The article focuses on research charting connections between nerve cells in the brain. It states that neuroanatomist Jeffrey Lictman and associates at Harvard University in Massachusetts are creating a three-dimensional reconstruction of a mouse brain. It mentions that magnetic resonance imaging technologies (MRI) are allowing scientists to chart the connections and structures in the brain, including measurement of blood supply to determine how hard neurons are working. It comments on the study of water molecules traveling along axons that can indicate the paths of axon bundles in the brain. It talks about the U.S. National Institutes of Health's "human connectome project" to roughly map the brains of 1,200 people using diffusion MRI and functional connectivity MRI.

The article focuses on the theory, put forth by psychiatrist Fuller Torrey that schizophrenia is caused by a viral infection. Schizophrenics have inflamed white blood cells, less brain tissue, and larger fluid-filled ventricles, all evidence in Torrey's conclusion. Torrey and others determined that the virus is the human endogenous retrovirus W (HERV-W), which exists in everyone's DNA. The work done by scientist Hervä Perron on viruses and schizophrenia is also discussed.

The article ponders on the brain's mechanism of processing time. David Eagleman, a neuroscientist at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, conducted a study to learn ways of temporarily resetting the brain's clock. The concept of the wagon wheel illusion is explained. An experiment was conducted by Rufin VanRullen, a neuroscientist at the University of Toulouse, to test the concept of wagon wheel illusion.

The article examines how technological innovations within the field of computing may depend upon understanding the chemistry and physiology of the human brain. Stanford University scientist Kwabena Boahen is attempting to develop a computer that is based on organized chaos representative of the brain. He has developed complex silicon wafers for a supercomputer known as Neurogrid. Research conducted by Australian Nation University neuroscientist Simon Laughlin is discussed.

The author looks at the future of Antarctica's ice. He reflects on his experience of exploring Antarctica through the Antarctic Geological Drilling project. He raises the examination of how Antarctica's ice responded to past climate swings that will help to predict how it will react as temperatures rise in the coming decades. He notes that the project shows how the West Antarctic ice sheet has collapsed and regrown at least 60 times in the past few million years.

The article discusses an experiment conducted by biochemist David Dreamer at Bumpass Hell, a valley of bubbling mud pools in the heart of the Lassen Volcanic National Park in northern California. He was recreating one of the most important episodes in the history of life, when carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and phosphorus came together to form amino acids, DNA and the rest of life's building blocks.

The article discusses various researches on brain activity. It notes the experiment of Louis Sokoloff in 1953 in which he tried to find out the energy consumption of the brain during vigorous thought. Likewise, Marcus Raichle and colleagues conducted a study on the activities of an idling brain that led to the discovery of a major system in the brain which was called by some people as neural dynamo of daydreaming. Further explorations on brain activities during daydreaming are discussed.

The article focuses on an expedition to the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) to study ice streams, large systems of ice that move across the ice sheet, guided by unseen forces like mountains, valleys, and lakes, towards the sea. Slawek Tulaczyk, a glaciologist from the University of California at Santa Cruz, went to the WAIS to study how these systems respond to global warming.

The article discusses the biological research of Stanley Miller concerning the formation of nucleobase compounds within cold environments rather than warm ones. Details are given regarding his experiments in freezing cyanide and ammonia for 25 years and his discovery of accelerated chemical reactions. The evolutionary implications of the research are also mentioned, citing possible theories of life forming in ice rather than temperate climates.

The article discusses research into the effects of global warming and carbon dioxide on trees in tropical forests. Research by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute on Barro Colorado Island, Panama, suggests that trees are growing slower, meaning that trees can absorb less excess carbon dioxide. Ken Feeley measured tree mass by comparing trunk diameters, rather than using allometric equations. Feeley found that tree growth had slowed 25 percent over 20 years.

The article discusses the possible variations of life beyond planet Earth. It is assumed that all life is based on carbon and water, but scientists are giving thought to the possibility of life based on other chemicals and reactions than those familiar to humans. The article analyses the properties of water and carbon, how they interact to produce life, and the other possible combinations that could exist. INSETS: Enter the sandman;Cloud living;Life on Mars after all?;Acid drinkers

This article looks at a computerized device that can see, mimicking the electrical behavior of nerve cells found in a human's primary visual cortex. The device, built by Kwabena Boahen at Stanford University and his colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, is intended to assist investigation into how the brain works.

The article reports that scientists are postulating the existence of consciousness in cockroaches. 35 years of research has led Nicholas Strausfeld to call insect brains "the most sophisticated...on the planet." Bruno van Sinderen has found clues that indicate a higher level of cognitive functions in insects.

Drilling under 740 metres of the Ross Ice Shelf reveals translucent fish living in perpetual darkness and cold.

The article focuses on an experiment conducted to read thoughts of a person by reading subtle changes in his brain activity. The researchers are watching patterns of blood flow in the brain and pinpointing spots where neurons are most vigorously stuttering out electric pulses. Frank Tong, the cognitive neuroscientist running the experiment at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, remarked that with functional magnetic resonance imaging, one can read out what a person is seeing or perceiving. It demonstrates that very basic forms of mind reading can be achieved with brain imaging. Researchers have tested brain-machine interfaces that allow people to control a cursor on a computer screen using scalp electrodes or brain implants. Tong hopes to use mind decoding, as he calls it, to explore the basis of visual consciousness.

The article presents information about building intelligent machines by copying the structures of living brains. The dream is that these new brains, embedded in robotic bodies of silicon and steel, will go to a level beyond today's artificial intelligence systems. These systems will arise by emulating the brain's neurons and the way they are connected to each other. In animal, brains neurons are linked to form huge reconfigurable networks that behave like filters, transferring, modifying or blocking signals that they receive.

The article presents information on a concept vehicle (segway robot) Segfrieda, a two-wheeled scooter that was launched in 2002. When the Segway hit the streets, the Pentagon's research agency, DARPA, was one of its first customers, buying a fleet and handing them out to a select group of robotics labs. Andrew Howard, a roboticist at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, is using his Segway robot to develop methods for mapping urban terrain--especially collapsed buildings. INSETS: Segway culture;Balancing on a dime.

Discusses issues related to the evolution of placental and marsupial mammals. Hypothesis of paleontologist Tom Rich on the origin of placental mammals; Fossils discovered that serve as a tool for studying the evolution of marsupial and placental mammals; Influence of the breakup of Gondwanaland on the evolution of the mammals.