Race to drill into Antarctic lake

[Tank]

Race to drill into Antarctic lake

Russian scientists are racing to beat US and UK rivals and be first to drill into an Antarctic sub-glacial lake.

The team has been drilling down to Lake Vostok, the largest of more than 100 bodies of liquid water buried under Antarctica's ice.

The lake has been sealed off from the surface for millennia, so it may contain life forms new to science.

Scientists are racing against the fast-approaching bitter cold and total darkness of Antarctic winter.

However, Prof John Priscu, who is in touch with the Russian researchers, told BBC News: "They are very, very close."

Exciting! Isolated for possibly 100,000 years it'll be really interesting to see what is down there.

[Tom62]

Exciting! Isolated for possibly 100,000 years it'll be really interesting to see what is down there.

Most likely, some "thing" like this

[Tank]

That's one scary film!

[Tom62]

That's one scary film!

John Carpenter's "The Thing" is one of my favourite horror/sci-fi movies. For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084787/

[Crow]

That's one scary film!

John Carpenter's "The Thing" is one of my favourite horror/sci-fi movies. For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084787/

Same here, the puppetry still outclasses anything I have seen using CGI.

[Too Few Lions]

I saw a piece on this on the news last night. They said the lake may have been isolated from the outside world for up to 15 million years, which is pretty amazing if so. It'll be fascinating to see what life exists down there.

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2011/10/antarcticas-lake-vostok-a-15-million-year-old-time-capsule-will-exploration-endanger-this-living-lab.html