Pristine samples from under-ice lake hit paydirt


Scientists successfully retrieved the first samples from a buried lake in Antarctica today. Initial reports are there’s already some fossil gold in hand:




With the possible exception of the entire universe or some weird distant denizens within, nothing is truly sealed off. Certainly nothing on earth. Even the inner iron core is connected to the land and sky by speedy bosons and less frantic molecules. But those lakes are sequestered and not long ago, in geologic time, Antarctica was a very different place. Short of a massive informal multi-century geological survey called the Industrial Revolution, sub-glacial lakes and streams are the ideal place to quickly find lots of clues about those lost ecosystems. It sounds like that strategy may have already paid off here.


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