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Antarctic Lake Vostok yields 'new bacterial life'Quicklink submitted by Kyle McDermott Permalink |
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 Lake Vostok is situated in one of the most inhospitable places on Earth. by BBC |
Russian scientists have claimed the discovery of a new type of bacterial life in water from a buried Antarctic lake. The researchers have been studying samples brought up from Vostok - the largest subglacial lake in Antarctica. Last year, the team drilled through almost 4km (2.34 miles) of ice to reach the lake and retrieve samples. Vostok is thought to have been cut off from the surface for millions of years. This has raised the possibility that such isolated bodies of water might host microbial life forms new to science. 'After putting aside all possible elements of contamination, DNA was found that did not coincide with any of the well-known types in the global database,' said Sergei Bulat of the genetics laboratory at the St Petersburg Institute of Nuclear Physics. 'We're calling this life form unclassified and unidentified. A level of 90% usually means that the organism is unknown.' |
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New Life? Russian scientists discover unidentified bacteria
by Kyle McDermott on Friday, Mar 8, 2013 at 6:35:13 PM
Our ancestors...
by Bill Johnson on Saturday, Mar 9, 2013 at 9:34:09 AM
Thank you for your comment...
by Kyle McDermott on Saturday, Mar 9, 2013 at 1:30:28 PM