Posted on 07/07/2013 5:51:24 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Analysis of ice cores obtained from the basin of Lake Vostok, the subglacial lake that Russian scientists drilled down to in 2012, have revealed DNA from an estimated 3,507 organisms.
While the majority were found to be bacteria, many of which were new to science, there were also other single celled organisms and multicellular organisms found, including from fungi.
The diversity of life from the lake has surprised scientists as many had thought the lake would be sterile due to the extreme conditions.
Lake Vostok was first covered by ice more than 15 million years ago and is now buried 12,000 feet beneath the surface, creating huge pressures. Few nutrients were expected to be found.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
This movie rarely ends well.
What could possibly go wrong?
Anyhow, Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!
Freegards
Pingo
It does if the scientists just happen to have a lot of flamethrowers and high explosives.
They seem friendly enough. Like the cute little aliens in Galaxy Quest.
Warning!
Warning!
DANGER< Will Robinson ...
ah
ahh
AAHHH
CHOOO !!
(ah, relief from the Zimmerman trial. Thank you so very much)
They say there is much more life underground than there is above the ground. I would bet the ratio is much more extreme than we imagine.
Send the probe to Europa then!
Here’s an interesting thought.
These organisms have been living and reproducing for 15 million years. Have any of them ‘evolved’?
There are 3507 different organisms now. How many were there 15 million years ago ?
Maybe we can get Obama to probe Uranus!
that is an awful darn good question
Obama will have to get in line behind the IRS and the NSA.
P.S. Technically there are 3507 organisms in the sample. Anything bigger than a football wouldn’t fit. And we know that life in the oceans and lakes is stratified. So the sample represents one ‘layer’ of the water.
We don’t really know how many different organisms are in the lake at all.
This is the reason why ice core data for CO2 concentrations from hundreds to thousands of years ago are totally un reliable.
There are a multitude of microbes in ice formations which either consume or produce C02 gas and totally bias the residual C02 content in the ice cores one way or another.
“A seedpod. Yes. The neat and unconfused reproductive technique of vegetation. No pain or pleasure as we know it. No emotions...no heart. Our superior. Our superior in every way. Gentlemen, do you realize what we’ve found? A being from another world as different from us as one pole from the other. If we can only communicate with it...we can learn secrets that have been hidden from mankind since the beginning...”
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