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More than 60 years ago, a couple of wolves wandered across a frozen channel on Lake Superior and settled on moose-rich Isle Royale in Michigan, touching off a dance of predators and prey and a classic study in ecology. But inbreeding as well as warmer winters, which mean less lake ice and fewer opportunities for mainland wolves to restock the population, have essentially ended the classic natural experiment, leaving only two surviving wolves on the island. Now, a new experiment is starting. If the wind and waves on Lake Superior cooperate, by the end of this month the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) will airlift the first of six wolves from the U.S. mainland to Isle Royale by floatplane in an effort to re-establish predators. With the reboot, NPS hopes to attract researchers with new questions to explore.

Lake Vostok, one of Earth's most hidden lakes, is located underneath more than 3 km of ice in the coldest, most remote part of Antarctica. An ice core that almost reaches the lake has been recovered. Jouzel et al. (page [2138][1]) show that the lowest parts of this ice core consist of lake ice, in contrast to the overlying ice, which is glacial in origin. Karl et al. (page [2144][2]) and Priscu et al. (page [2141][3]) have analyzed bacteria from the lake ice that give clues to life in the underlying lake. [1]: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/286/5447/2138 [2]: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/286/5447/2144 [3]: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/286/5447/2141

Microbial communities are known to exist in extremely hot environments such as hydrothermal vents, but what about extremely cold regions? In their Research Commentary, Psenner and Sattler discuss results reported in the same issue by Priscu et al. in which a microbial assemblage was discovered in Antarctic lake ice. Although this environment is marked by permanent ice cover, pockets of liquid water can form during part of the year, allowing active growth and reproduction of organisms.