Russians Retrieve First Sample of Lake Vostok

astroengine writes "Russian drilling operations at Lake Vostok, Antarctica, have succeeded in collecting a long-sought core sample of water frozen into the borehole from the glacier-covered, 20 million-year-old lake they cracked into last year. 'The first core of transparent lake ice, two meters long, was obtained on Jan. 10, at a depth of 3,406 meters (11,174.5 feet). Inside it was a vertical channel filled with white bubble-rich ice,' stated the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, part of the Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring."

Uh oh

[Anonymous Coward]

This is how a horror movie starts.

Re:

[mrbester]

Didn't the X-Files have that storyline?

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

I misread it as "Russians Revive First Sample of Lake Vostok "

I am much less interested in checking back since I realized the actual title.

Re:

[JeanCroix]

Yup. That water's full of microscopic spawn of the Elder Things. We're doomed.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Yup. This is how Alien Vs Predator started.

Re:

[ikaruga]

I think that is the storyline for Evangelion too.

In Soviet Russia...

[Anonymous Coward]

lake drills you!

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Shut your lake hole.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

In Russia, Lake Vostok take sample of you!

But this is Antarctica, so the Russians just took samples of Lake Vostok. Sorry to be a downer like that.

The real question is

[DarthBling]

what does the water in Lake Vostok taste like?

Re:The real question is

[MightyMartian]

Frozen piss, of course.

Re:

[JeanCroix]

No, just frosty.

Re:

[Nidi62]

I think the better question is how well does it mix with liquor

Re:

[Hatta]

Water? I suspect the Russians are only interested because it's actually a lake of pure vodka.

Re:

[Crypto Gnome]

Scientists were heard to comment "Is good! ... But is not Russian Standard [energi.co.nz]!"

Re:

[dargaud]

Add a little H2O2 to your Evian and that should be about it. The water in Lake Vostok is highly saturated in O2, which seems to imply that no life will be found. The O2 comes from the surface snow trapping air, accumulating down, melting inside the lake and never being released (the extra water flows down in small rivers at the very bottom between ice and rock).

I've had Champagne with ice from the last core from Epica [gdargaud.net], 3280m deep, and it was quite an experience: it was tingling in the glass like a glass x

At least we already know...

[Faw]

the names of the future Patient Zero [wikipedia.org]

New brand of water

[kmahan]

Wonder how long until the water bottling plant is built next to the lake.

Re:New brand of water

[DarwinSurvivor]

You seem to be under the impression that the brand of water has anything to do with its source...

Re:

[skuzzlebutt]

Russians are trying to be good capitalists...they'll build one in Kiev and sell tap water called Fresh From Vostok. Just like Nestle/Coke/et al.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

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[peragrin]

woosh!!!! as you completely misunderstood the joke.

All bottled water planets say fresh mountian spring, etc, when they are just random buildings taking random tap water out and filtering it.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

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[skuzzlebutt]

Absolutely right...I keep forgetting my lessons from Improv school: things are funnier in threes, trolling is a art, and jokes are better when based on solid, verifiable geo-political data.

So, taking bets

[almitchell]

Will it be a flesh eating disease, an alien microbe, or simply a refreshing scent of meteor blast?

Re:

[Runaway1956]

I don't think you 90% scenario is very realistic. Have some copy/pasta:

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57554856/ancient-life-found-in-buried-antarctic-lake/ [cbsnews.com]

Beneath the icy surface of a buried Antarctic lake, in super-salty water devoid of light and oxygen that is also cold enough to freeze seawater, researchers have now discovered that a diverse community of bacteria has survived for millennia.

The findings shed light on the extreme limits at which life can live not just on

It's a Commie plot

[kurt555gs]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qr2bSL5VQgM [youtube.com]

Scientific Liability

[Jetra]

And now it's contaminated so future research will now read false-positives for life.

Re:

[Rogerborg]

Oh my heavens, so it is. I'm utterly certain that those foolish commies won't have thought of that or taken steps to sterilise the hell out of their drilling equipment, because as we all know, they're barely sentient.

Re:

[Jetra]

I think your sarcasm renderer needs some fine tuning.

Re:john carpenter

[ChrisMaple]

It was John W. Campbell's dream first.

Brought some back ...

[PPH]

... in the only container available. An empty Vodka bottle.

ah, yes. news for nerds

[Mindcontrolled]

Ok. For once an exciting scientific story. Not a SINGLE FUCKING comment on the science. Guys, /. is dead. Go on mutually sucking your cocks in your "GUNZ RULE" and "EVARY BULLCRAP TEH HOLY FRAMERS SPOKE IS HOLY HOLY HOLY" threads. I'd shit on this place if I wouldn't mourn the loss of precious shit afterwards.