Russians Retrieve First Sample of Lake Vostok

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Russians Retrieve First Sample of Lake Vostok

Posted by Soulskill on Friday January 11, 2013 @08:34AM from the no-sign-of-jimmy-hoffa dept.

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."

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Uh oh by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-11 08:37 · Score: 5, Funny

This is how a horror movie starts.
1. Re:Uh oh by mrbester · 2013-01-11 08:55 · Score: 2
  
  Didn't the X-Files have that storyline?
  
  --
  "Wait. Something's happening. It's opening up! My God, it's full of apricots!"
2. Re:Uh oh by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-11 08:58 · Score: 1
  
  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.
3. Re:Uh oh by JeanCroix · 2013-01-11 09:00 · Score: 1
  
  Yup. That water's full of microscopic spawn of the Elder Things. We're doomed.
4. Re:Uh oh by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-11 09:29 · Score: 1
  
  Yup. This is how Alien Vs Predator started.
5. Re:Uh oh by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-11 09:30 · Score: 0
  
  Nah, that was in Alaska and they drilled into a meteor crater under the ice and not a lake. Waaaaay different. ;) We should totally be safe from mind altering alien parasites then. Fox Moulder guarantees it.
6. Re:Uh oh by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-11 10:00 · Score: 0
  
  lol, hilarious and true!
7. Re:Uh oh by ikaruga · 2013-01-12 00:12 · Score: 1
  
  I think that is the storyline for Evangelion too.
In Soviet Russia... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-11 08:40 · Score: 2, Funny

lake drills you!
1. Re:In Soviet Russia... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-11 08:52 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Shut your lake hole.
2. Re:In Soviet Russia... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-11 09:11 · Score: 0
  
  Shut your lake hole.
  is borehole
Are wes sure by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-11 08:42 · Score: 0

It wasn't lake vostok which got its first sample of russians?
1. Re:Are wes sure by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-11 08:58 · Score: 1
  
  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 by DarthBling · 2013-01-11 08:48 · Score: 2

what does the water in Lake Vostok taste like?
1. Re:The real question is by MightyMartian · 2013-01-11 08:49 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Frozen piss, of course.
  
  --
  The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
2. Re:The real question is by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-11 08:50 · Score: 0
  
  Like Voss (sp?)
3. Re:The real question is by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-11 08:53 · Score: 0
  
  Tastes like water only colder and wetter.
4. Re:The real question is by Nidi62 · 2013-01-11 09:01 · Score: 1
  
  I think the better question is how well does it mix with liquor
  
  --
  The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
5. Re:The real question is by Hatta · 2013-01-11 09:06 · Score: 1
  
  Water? I suspect the Russians are only interested because it's actually a lake of pure vodka.
  
  --
  Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
6. Re:The real question is by JeanCroix · 2013-01-11 09:19 · Score: 1
  
  No, just frosty.
7. Re:The real question is by Crypto+Gnome · 2013-01-11 10:38 · Score: 0
  
  Scientists were heard to comment "Is good! ... But is not Russian Standard!"
  
  --
  Visit CryptoGnome in his home.
8. Re:The real question is by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-11 10:46 · Score: 0
  
  Depends...
9. Re:The real question is by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-11 12:41 · Score: 0
  
  Expensive.
10. Re:The real question is by dargaud · 2013-01-12 03:46 · Score: 1
  
  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, 3280m deep, and it was quite an experience: it was tingling in the glass like a glass xylophone. The 300 bars of pressure still held by bubbles of air in the ice being released by the melting. That and the sweet taste of drilling fluid.
  
  --
  Non-Linux Penguins ?
11. Re:The real question is by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-12 13:25 · Score: 0
  
  You can retrieve my frozen piss from my frozen, dead hands!
At least we already know... by Faw · 2013-01-11 08:49 · Score: 4, Funny

the names of the future Patient Zero
New brand of water by kmahan · 2013-01-11 08:53 · Score: 3, Funny

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

--
Invalid Checksum. Retrying.
1. Re:New brand of water by DarwinSurvivor · 2013-01-11 09:42 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  You seem to be under the impression that the brand of water has anything to do with its source...
2. Re:New brand of water by skuzzlebutt · 2013-01-11 09:45 · Score: 1
  
  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.
  
  --
  My debut novel AMITY now available: http://jeremydbrooks.c
3. Re:New brand of water by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-11 17:14 · Score: 0
  
  > how long
  The septic tank's almost done. After that they'll start the bottling plant
4. Re:New brand of water by CRCulver · 2013-01-11 19:02 · Score: 0
  
  Kyiv is a city in Ukraine. What does it have to do witth a project of a scientific body in the government of Russia? (You cannot even claim that Kyiv is much of an ethnic Russian city anymore. The demographic changes over the last decade or so, with the wider prevalence of Ukrainian speakers in public, are impressive.)
5. Re:New brand of water by peragrin · 2013-01-12 01:04 · Score: 1
  
  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.
  
  --
  i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
6. Re:New brand of water by CRCulver · 2013-01-12 02:01 · Score: 0
  
  Jokes aren't funny if they are built on misunderstandings of basic geography.
7. Re:New brand of water by skuzzlebutt · 2013-01-12 04:58 · Score: 2
  
  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.
  
  --
  My debut novel AMITY now available: http://jeremydbrooks.c
8. Re:New brand of water by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-12 20:12 · Score: 0
  
  I've lived in both Ukraine and Russia for long periods of time. There are way way way more similarities than there are differences between Russia and Ukraine. A bit more khokhli and salo down south, but really they're all in the same family and the same mentality.
So, taking bets by almitchell · 2013-01-11 08:58 · Score: 2

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

--
Baseless self confidence kills more people each year than bathtubs.
1. Re:So, taking bets by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-11 10:34 · Score: 0
  
  You fool, it will be the rising of Cthulhu from R'lyeh... Iä! Iä!
2. Re:So, taking bets by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-11 10:45 · Score: 0
  
  90% chance, no life at all,
  9% chance, normal life that has found a way to get into that environment,
  .9% chance, ancient life (favoured result),
  .1% chance, Cthulu, or Aliens and Predators.
3. Re:So, taking bets by Runaway1956 · 2013-01-11 14:03 · Score: 2
  
  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/
  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 Earth, but possibly alien worlds, scientists added.
  Researchers analyzed Lake Vida, which lies encapsulated within ice at least 60 feet beneath Antarctica's surface. Past studies revealed the brine in the lake has been isolated from the surface for at least 2,800 years.
  
  --
  "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
4. Re:So, taking bets by thunderclap · 2013-01-12 02:20 · Score: 0
  
  I take it you were unaware that The Doctor has stopped him not once of three times. He's called the Great Intelligence.
It's a Commie plot by kurt555gs · 2013-01-11 09:18 · Score: 3, Funny

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

--
* Carthago Delenda Est *
Probe? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-11 09:52 · Score: 0

Getting at the lake to study the ancient air/fauna/microbes is just a cover. They're really trying to get at the Von Neuman probe they detected laying at the bottom...
Scientific Liability by Jetra · 2013-01-11 10:23 · Score: 1

And now it's contaminated so future research will now read false-positives for life.
1. Re:Scientific Liability by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-11 12:52 · Score: 0
  
  And now it's contaminated so future research will now read false-positives for life.
  We're all drilling out there. Too bad they contaminated space first too?
2. Re:Scientific Liability by Rogerborg · 2013-01-12 00:06 · Score: 1
  
  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.
  
  --
  If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
3. Re:Scientific Liability by Jetra · 2013-01-12 00:58 · Score: 1
  
  I think your sarcasm renderer needs some fine tuning.
john carpenter by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-11 11:11 · Score: 0

dreams of that core sample, actually 3046 meters is really shallow, i know its epic in such place,
just saying at those depths you will not find Gnomes.
1. Re:john carpenter by ChrisMaple · 2013-01-11 13:48 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  It was John W. Campbell's dream first.
  
  --
  Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
Brought some back ... by PPH · 2013-01-11 13:52 · Score: 1

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

--
Have gnu, will travel.
ah, yes. news for nerds by Mindcontrolled · 2013-01-12 02:56 · Score: 1

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.

--
Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
1. Re:ah, yes. news for nerds by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-12 08:26 · Score: 0
  
  It's just a bunch of WoW and 360 players, with a smattering of older readers. It's not worth reading comments, any longer. Oh yeah, we forgot "pot curez cancer n aydz".
Vostok - wikipedia by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-12 06:18 · Score: 0

# Vostok (sloop-of-war), a ship of Faddey Bellingshausen during the First Russian Antarctic Expedition, when Antarctica was discovered
Now it makes sense.