Russia Retracts Earlier Report Of New Microbial Life

The Daily Galaxy (TDG) reports Russians disagree, whether new form of microbial life, discovered in Lake Vostok (picture).  Lake Vostok lies under two miles of ice in Antarctica.  Vladimir Korolyov, head of genetics lab at the Institute for Nuclear Physics in St. Petersburg, Russia contradicts earlier report by Sergei Bulat.   Korolyov advises it was a contaminated sample.  TDG article explains importance of Lake Vostok as a preparatory site for space exploration:

"Lake Vostok an excellent Earth-bound staging-experiement for Europa, a moon of Jupiter believed to have ice-crusted oceans. Scientists believe Europa's ocean, which is warmed by gravitational forces, could be one of the best places in the Solar System to look for life."

The question remains whether there was a discovery?   The statement provided previously by Bulat casts some doubt on Korolyov's advice below:

"Preliminary analysis of water samples collected from the lake revealed a species of bacteria not belonging to any known subkingdoms. 'We call it unidentified and 'unclassified' life,'  the team's leader, Sergei Bulat of the St. Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, told Russian news agency RIA Novosti. The bacteria's DNA wasrep[orted to be  less than 86% similar to known bacterial DNA, indicating that it was a new species, Bulat said."

Doesn't the Bulat statement sound confident?

russians analyze data to confirm reached lake vostok

World awaits announcement Russians have drilled into Lake Vostok! BBC News article, "Antarctic lake success uncertain," reports "...Valery Lukin, the Russian Antarctic programme director, has told Nature journal that the claim is premature. He said data from a number of sensors monitoring the drilling had yet to be analyzed." A CBS News Tech page story advises, "...there has been no official confirmation of the team's success. There are no press releases on the website of Russia's Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, the government agency that oversees the country's polar science expeditions." John Priscu, veteran researcher and University of Montana microbiologist, comments in same article, "there are a lot of rumors going around about penetrating the lake, and we need the Russian program to make the official announcement... If they were successful, their efforts will transform the way we do science in Antarctica and provide us with an entirely new view of what exists under the vast Antarctic ice sheet.'" Is there life in Lake Vostok?

Video Update: Scientists Drill Into a Lost World*

russians at lake vostok not lost

US News reports failure to respond doesn't mean Russians lost or even in trouble.  Russians are working around clock to reach goal to drill into ancient Lake Vostok before winter closes down operation, believes American explorer John Priscu. A perturbed Priscu discounts recent Fox report Russians at Lake Vostok lost, because of no reported contact for five days. "'I never said the Russians were lost,'" comments Priscu.  The world will hinge on Russian find, although any account, may be months away?

lake vostok mystery

Mystery builds as Russians quit drilling for season. The drill lies less than 50 feet from subglacial Lake Vostok environment. Russians leave a two mile borehole filled with kerosene to prevent freezing, until drilling resumes in December. Mystery surrounds the lake even thicker than the two miles of ice covering it. There is a reluctance to penetrate an environment separated from the rest of the world for thousands of years. The pristine lake could be contaminated in the process, but release of pressurized gases is also a concern.

Vostok station was established in 1957 by the Russians, who suspected the presence of water. A.P.Kapitsa attempted to verify a freshwater lake by seismic measurements in the fifties and sixties, but data failed to confirm it. Russian scientists were convinced though physical pressure exerted by the ice sheets, could reach melting temperatures.

In 1974, British scientists did a radar survey by flying over Antarctica and uncovered the terrain below ice of predominantly mountains, and on Christmas Day, what appeared to be a lake. A satellite study by space-based radar in 1991 confirmed the presence of one of the largest lakes in the world. A documentary, "The Lost World of Lake Vostok," provides an excellent summary of efforts made in the discovery.

Lake Vostok lies not only two miles down in complete darkness, but apparently a very old and deep lake. Vostok is about the size of Lake Ontario but with twice the volume and almost half as deep as Lake Baikal--the deepest lake in the world. NASA became interested because of similarities to Europa and viewed the lake as a testing ground.

Mystery helped propagate rumors a decade ago, when a NASA press conference was interrupted after allusions to "national security" concerns and intervention by the NSA.

The Art Bell show contributed to controversy with statement on air scientists were suffering ailments after returning from the South Pole. A McMurdo Station physician made a comment at the time to his replacement, "fill your pockets with salt," a hint to bring
iodine tablets because of radiation. It didn't end there.

Two million missing Nazis and base 211 have been tied to the lake. A 2009 Science Daily article can be worked into the conspiracy web, reporting a dynamic network of lakes below Antarctica--what better place for Nazi U-boats? The conspiracy-fest continues with possibility a large crystal, which powered legendary Atlantis, is the source of the magnetic anomaly detected at one end of Lake Vostok.

Is all the hype comic book fantasy or disinfo agents at work to obfuscate reality? Worse, has a virus we haven't encountered been released? Or, is the South Pole going to suffer a similar fate as the Gulf of Mexico? We won't have long to wait, December is the last month before apocalyptic 2012!