Antarctic mission to look for life in sub-glacial lake

[CHIMO]

It is a mission into the uncharted and unknown in search of the hardiest life forms on Earth. British engineers set off last week to explore a lake that has been isolated from the rest of the planet for hundreds of thousands of years three kilometres under the Antarctic ice.

Researchers from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) will use a hot-water "drill" to cut through the ice cap to Lake Ellsworth, on the western Antarctic ice sheet. By sampling the contents of the lake, which is liquid because of the extreme pressure of the ice on top of it, they hope to find clues about the evolution of life.

The predominant mood among the scientists is one of intense curiosity. "We really don't know what to expect," said Martin Siegert of the University of Edinburgh, one of the principal investigators on the expedition. "Whether we will find lots of life, whether we'll find low levels of life on the edge of existence, or whether we'll find nothing."

In recent decades, scientists have found bacteria and other single-celled organisms that have evolved to live in conditions in which other life forms would struggle to survive, such as darkness or extreme temperatures or salinity. The scientists believe that Lake Ellsworth might be a haven for these so-called "extremophiles".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/15/antarctic-mission-sub-glacial-lake

[Katashi_itto]

1. Wonder if they will find a crashed spacecrafts and something...

"I don't know what it is but it's weird and pissed off"

Will we start losing contact with Antarctic bases?

Or will it simply turn out to be Glenn Beck on his "Unite Antarctica Tour"

[Ready4Change]

2. Earth is thoroughly infected.

We're going to find life just about everywhere on this planet. Once started, life appears to be VERY good at exploiting whatever environment it can reach.

To real question, to me, is how easy/hard it is for an entire planet to spontaneously generate life? Did Earth just happen to hit an extremely fine set of conditions? (which would make life very rare?) Or are the needed initial conditions more forgiving? Or are there many different ranges, in which life based on a variety of chemistries can come into being?