Opening of Antarctic's Lake Vostok May Reveal Life from Earth's 20-Million-Year Past

dailygalaxy.com — Russian scientists opened a frontier miles under the Antarctic ice, after drilling down and finally reaching the surface of 20-million-year-old Lake Vostok, an achievement the mission chief likened to placing a man on the moon. The gigantic buried freshwater reservoir could harbor life from Earth's distant past. The event is a major scientific achievement: "In the simplest sense, it can transform the way we think about life," NASA's chief scientist, Waleed Abdalati, told The Associated Press. Feb 11, 2012 View in Crawl 4

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user500 Feb 12, 2012

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next week Coke is going to start pumping the lake dry to make bottled water.

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sunlandfoodsflo Feb 12, 2012

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How much will each bottle cost? Send us a six pack.

jsaint Feb 12, 2012

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Let it sleep. "I suppose, again in that chasm of stone which has shielded him since the sun was young. His accursed city is sunken once more, for the Vigilant sailed over the spot after the April storm; but his ministers on earth still bellow and prance and slay around idol-capped monoliths in lonely places. He must have been trapped by the sinking whilst within his black abyss, or else the world would by now be screaming with fright and frenzy. Who knows the end? What has risen may sink, and what has sunk may rise."

anomaly100 Feb 11, 2012

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But Earth is flat and only a few thousand years old.

crom99 Feb 12, 2012

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Beware of shoggoths.

darth0 Feb 12, 2012

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20 million years is a 3rd of the way back to the Cretaceous when dinosaurs roamed the earth. To imagine that evolution stopped for 20 millions years is ridiculous. At best they will find the evolved descendants of the creatures that were trapped there when the ice sealed them in. It will be interesting if they find anything though.