Recommended from Around the Web (Week Ending February 28, 2014)

The Brain’s Inner Language
A profile of a neuroscientist who studies the anatomy and function of the visual cortex in mice explains what large collaborative research efforts are doing to understand how neurons process information.
—Susan Young, biomedicine editor

3D Model of a Boy’s Heart Speeds Up Life-Saving Operation
With help from 3-D printing, a surgeon saves a life.
—Colby Wheeler, manager of information technology

How Covert Agents Infiltrate the Internet to Manipulate, Deceive, and Destroy Reputations
Western intelligence services are distorting and influencing Internet discourse.
—Jason Pontin, editor in chief and publisher

Artist Uses Google Glass to Interact with Museum Visitors
Through the lens of Google Glass, art goes meta.
—J. Juniper Friedman, editorial assistant

Happiness Is a Warm iPhone
Author Charles Yu reflects on what is lost as technology becomes more accessible and more mundane.
—Will Knight, news and analysis editor

Why “Big Data” Is a Big Deal
Harvard Magazine’s deep dive into the myriad reasons big data matters.
—Kyanna Sutton, senior Web producer

The Science of Solitary Confinement
A quick take on the “troubling neurological implications of long-term isolation” in U.S. prisons.
—Kyanna Sutton

A Star in a Bottle
The New Yorker goes deep inside the ITER fusion-reactor project to assess whether it will ever achieve its goal of boundless clean energy.
—Brian Bergstein, deputy editor

Publishers Withdraw More than 120 Gibberish Papers
Apparently, it’s surprisingly easy to get computer-generated nonsense published in conference proceedings.
—Linda Lowenthal, copy chief

Big Data, Big Business, Big Brother?
A good explainer on the implications of big data.
—Rob Finley, West Coast advertising sales executive