Scientist at work: Searching for tiny neutrinos in the South Pole's thick ice

Standing at the South Pole is the next-best thing to being on another planet. If you walk a few hundred yards away from the buildings that make up the National Science Foundation's research station, you see a featureless plain of snow and ice, most likely empty of living creatures larger than microbes for hundreds of miles. With nothing but snow for sound waves to echo off, there's an eerie silence. It's easy to get lost in reverie, contemplating the stark landscape. But then you remember that y...