Cold, Dark and Alive! Life Discovered in Buried Antarctic Lake

Live Science ^ | August 20, 2014 01:00pm ET | Becky Oskin, Senior Writer

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Antarctica, the coldest place on Earth, teems with microscopic life. Tiny organisms dwell on the ice and live inside glaciers, and now, researchers confirm, a rich microbial ecosystem persists underneath the thick ice sheet, where no sunlight has been felt for millions of years.

Nearly 4,000 species of microbes inhabit Lake Whillans, which lies beneath 2,625 feet (800 meters) of ice in West Antarctica, researchers report today (Aug. 20) in the journal Nature. These are the first organisms ever retrieved from a subglacial Antarctic lake.

"We found not just that things are alive, but that there's an active ecosystem," said lead study author Brent Christner, a microbiologist at Louisiana State Universityin Baton Rouge. "If you had to think up what would be the coolest scenario for an ecosystem..."

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very cool graphic of Antarctica de-iced within article (click graphic to enlarge )

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courtesy ping

[catbertz]

Thanks for this post. Very interesting read. Life will always find a way.

[ken5050]

Fascinating..many thanks for posting this.

Did you catch the moment, early on, when, amid all the incredible hi-tech equipment and computers, one guy is writing data in a notebook, with a ballpoint pen..

[urbanpovertylawcenter]

WE are not ALONE!

Ancient Aliens visited earth and their garbage grew into all this out of one disposable diaper from the young one inadvertently left here by an unwed teen mother, who was along for the ride in a disadvantaged youth outreach program.

Remarkable!

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks blueplum.

[null and void]

When NASA first started sending up astronauts, they quickly discovered that ballpoint pens would not work in zero gravity. To combat the problem, NASA scientists spent a decade and $12 billion to develop a pen that writes in zero gravity, upside down, underwater, on almost any surface, and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to 300 degrees Celsius.

The Russians used a pencil.

[COBOL2Java]

Cold, Dark and Alive!

[GOYAKLA]

When you publish the book, let us know. ;^}