Laboratory dynamos attempt to generate magnetic fields the way planets and stars do. (p. 26)

Scientists struggle to understand how early Earth stayed warm enough for liquid water. (p. 30)

The Antarctica volcano’s long-lived lava lake coughs up clues to the physiology of volcanoes . (p. 22)

Barely detectable tremors may portend major destruction. (p. 26)

Ancient cave formations in Siberia reveal effects of warmer past on frozen ground. (p. 10)

With fertilizer prices skyrocketing, scientists scramble to recover phosphorus from waste. (p. 20)

At 5 a.m. local time today (January 28), U.S. researchers successfully completed boring a 30-centimeter-diameter hole through 800 meters of Antarctic ice, piercing into Lake Whillans. It’s one of a series of interconnected subglacial lakes that periodically fill and drain. Scientists estimate that the lake’s water, which flows beneath the Whillans Ice Stream, has not had contact with the atmosphere for untold millennia.Research teams from Russia, the United Kingdom and United States have each spearheaded drilling efforts over the past few years to pierce and sample separate subglacial Anta...