The weather here on planet Earth can be pretty extreme, but it’s not a patch on what goes on elsewhere in the Solar System. Take a tour of some of the wildest weather in the Universe.

What lies beneath?

Japanese ship Chikyu is preparing to drill deep into the Earth in the hope of reaching the mantle for the first time. Will it reach its goal and what might it find?

Synthetic life

Geneticist Craig Venter has succeeded in creating life from a completely artificial genome. We look at the research currently taking place to build life to our own design that can produce drugs and clean up oil spills.

DARPA files

What’s the Pentagon’s military ‘mad science wing’ got tucked up its sleeve?

PLUS

Could you live by just drinking blood – like a vampire? And what’s the nutritional value of brains?

Why is it so difficult to create a male contraceptive pill?

AND

Why do we sneeze when we look into the light?