[Nammy]

This is the news headline at msnbc : http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12389073/ .

What interests me are the parts :

"British researchers who discovered the plumbing system that moves water hundreds of miles said it challenges the notion that the lakes under the Antarctic ice evolved independently and could support pristine ancient life."

and :

"Scientists had plans to drill through the ice to take samples from the lakes but were worried about contaminating them with new microbes."

So what do you think? If the notion that lakes indeed support ancient life is under question, why are the scientists afraid of contaminating them with new microbes? Or did I misunderstand the article?

[Cedars]

Originally Posted by Nammy

This is the news headline at msnbc : http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12389073/ .

What interests me are the parts :

"British researchers who discovered the plumbing system that moves water hundreds of miles said it challenges the notion that the lakes under the Antarctic ice evolved independently and could support pristine ancient life."

and :

"Scientists had plans to drill through the ice to take samples from the lakes but were worried about contaminating them with new microbes."

So what do you think? If the notion that lakes indeed support ancient life is under question, why are the scientists afraid of contaminating them with new microbes? Or did I misunderstand the article?

While the pristine ancient life idea may be compromised by the rivers, unique pristine life is not. Introducing microbes into this environment could alter/change the balance of what life may exist in this isolated condition. To be able to study an uncontaminated ecosystem is getting more and more challenging. Its a 'better safe than sorry' approach for the future studies of this environment.

[Nammy]

Has there been any solutions to this or are we still searching for the right method to study?

[Cedars]

Originally Posted by Nammy

Has there been any solutions to this or are we still searching for the right method to study?

Seems this kind of research isnt this Professors specialty. That explains why they decided not to drill.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...an+Wingham%22+

[Nammy]

I read some of the links-it seems he was the leader of Cryosat. I understand the mission was a study to measure sea ice thickness and by inference ice mass from space. But how does this connect him to a study of ancient pristine life 'under' the ice sheets?

Which one of those links were you specifically referring to?

[Cedars]

Originally Posted by Nammy

I read some of the links-it seems he was the leader of Cryosat. I understand the mission was a study to measure sea ice thickness and by inference ice mass from space. But how does this connect him to a study of ancient pristine life 'under' the ice sheets?

Which one of those links were you specifically referring to?

Sorry, I should have been more clear.

His specialty area is the study of climate, not microbes. He made the correct decision not to chance introduction of foreign microbes thru his drilling because he cannot assume he will not contaminate a research area that is out of his specialty. Thats what I understand the meaning behind what the article originally stated.

As far as which link I was refering to, I wasnt refering to a particular link. Just googled his name and posted the query result. Sorry if I confused you a bit.

[Cedars]

Originally Posted by Nammy

Has there been any solutions to this or are we still searching for the right method to study?

While I was happy clicking links about the antarctic I came across this link. I think it may be what you were looking for:

http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/~mstuding/vostok.html

enjoy!

[arkain101]

Damn, I was going to make a killing on that drilling job too..

lol, meh, rock is more fun to drilll anyway.

[Nammy]

Thank you, Cedars. I went off to sleep (I live in the middle-east) because it was very late before seeing your reply. I will visit that link as soon as I can now-thanks. I am very interested in this subject.

[Tormod]

Originally Posted by Nammy

So what do you think? If the notion that lakes indeed support ancient life is under question, why are the scientists afraid of contaminating them with new microbes? Or did I misunderstand the article?

Like has been mentioned, it is possible that the lakes under the Antarctic ice has evolved differently. Therefore scientists have been worried about tainting it with microbes that could ruin the research.

What the new research shows is that the system is much larger than expected, and that water from under the ice is sometimes flushed out into the ocean. This means that there is at least the possibility that the microbes are already known to us.

But there is also a larger possibility that somewhere in this system there is an inlet for water and air from the outside world, thus the system could be non-pristine.

However, the scientists still are afraid to risk tainting the system. If it should turn out to be pristine, they could infect thousands of sub-ice lakes!

One reason they are so keen on studying the lakes in search for life, is that it would give unique insight into how life on planets covered in ice could evolve. That's for example why NASA's astrobiologists are interested - it could have implications for how we look for life on Jupiter's most promising icy moon, Europa.