Russian report says new life found under Antarctic ice, but not so fast

When the Russians drilled down to Lake Vostok, nearly 4 km under the ice of East Antarctica, they brought up water samples that were found to contain microbes, and reports came out last week that some of those microbes had never been seen before.

With the water of this lake being separated from the rest of the life on this planet, it probably makes some sense that anything found there might be completely new, having possibly followed a different evolutionary path over millions of years. Science fiction has certainly shown us that time and time again, but we've been seeing more and more in recent years that science fiction isn't always so far off from science fact.

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The announcement came in a press release from scientists working in the laboratory that is examining the water samples taken from Lake Vostok. The samples were collected after a drilling team finally reached the lake, some 4000 metres beneath the ice, after working at it for 23 years.

"After putting aside all possible elements of contamination, DNA was found that did not coincide with any of the well-known types in the global database," said Sergey Bulat, a geneticist at the Saint Petersburg Institute of Nuclear Physics, according to the Russian news agency RIA Novosti. "We are calling this life form unclassified and unidentified."

The organisms they supposedly found had DNA that matched only 86% of the DNA of other species, when anything less than 90% is enough to indicate that a new species has been discovered.

Hold on a second, though. Let's not be too hasty.

These samples were collected last year, and were only recently examined in the lab. The findings can certainly be compelling, but there's a safety mechanism in place for scientists — called 'peer review' — that helps prevent potential errors and omissions, and ensures that only the most thoroughly-researched science gets published.

Peer review takes a long time, though, or it can. The scientists behind the research need to write up their findings and submit it to knowledgeable peers in their field. Those peers read over the work, to check for any issues with the study's hypothesis, methods or conclusions. Only when the study passes peer review is it published.

This process keeps science honest, consistent and reliable. It's been around, in one form or another, for at least the past 350 years (if not longer), and it has been behind all the advances in science since the mid-20th century.

Unfortunately, this particular announcement took place before the research made it to peer review, and a new announcement came out today as a consequence of that.

"We found certain specimens, although not many. All of them were contaminants," said Vladimir Korolyov, the head of the genetics laboratory, according to the Inferfax news agency.

One of the problems involved with drilling down nearly 4 kms under glacial ice is that the machinery needs to stay lubricated, and any samples brought back to the surface through the drilled hole stand a chance at being contaminated by microbes that live in those lubricants.

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This isn't the end of the story yet, though. New samples are on the way back to the lab from the Russian's latest drilling success, on February 5th. When these arrive, the scientists will be able to examine these new samples, and check if they really did find a new form of life.

Quite frankly, though, just the idea that they found life — even known forms of life — that far down under the ice is amazing in of itself. That kind of discovery gives great hope that we will find life in other similar environments, like a sub-surface ocean under the icy crust of Jupiter's moon Europa.

(Image courtesy: National Science Foundation)

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