Confirmed Today: New Life Form Discovered In Antarctic Lake Vostok

The Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute in St. Petersburg officially confirmed on Monday that probes from Lake Vostok in the Antarctic contained an "unclassified" species of bacteria.

The bacterium did not match DNA sequences of any known contaminates or, indeed, any of the phyla, or main subdivisions, of the biological domain of bacteria, the institute said on its website.

The discovery was first reported last Thursday by a member of the research team who said tests were still ongoing at the time.

A few days later, a Russian scientist apparently said the opposite to the Interfax news agency, leading to contradicting media reports that our publication was a victim of as well.

Sergei Bulat, of genetics laboratory at the Saint Petersburg Institute of Nuclear Physics, said Thursday, Mar. 7 that the samples obtained from Antarctic Lake Vostok contained a new type of microbe that did not have any resemblance to other existing type of bacteria.

The head of the genetics laboratory then dismissed these initial reports Saturday, stating that the new type of microbe was nothing but contaminants. "We found certain specimen, although not many. All of them were contaminants," Vladimir Korolyov told the Interfax news agency. "That is why we cannot say that previously-unknown life was found," he said.

Lake Vostok is the largest of Antarctica's known sub-glacial lakes, which is buried more than 3 kilometers below ice.

Anticipation over possible life under Antarctic's great glaciers has been building since 1989, when researchers from the Station Vostok research base began drilling straight down to reach the sub-glacial Lake Vostok, which evidence suggests may have been cut off from the outside work about 17 million years ago.

It took the drilling team 23 years to cut through the ice without contaminating the lake.

Scientists have long thought unique life would indeed be found in Vostok's highly oxygenated waters, which heated by geo-thermal forces.

Last year, Russian scientists finally reached the lake and successfully retrieved samples of water from there. Doublechecking with a new sample this year seemed to confirm a new type of bacteria at first, but more analysis is still needed--tests will continue when fresh samples, obtained earlier this year, reach St. Petersburg by ship in May. .

Scientists from other nations including the United States have been taking similar efforts to find microbial life in the sub-glacial lakes. Recently, a U.S.-based team successfully took samples from sub-glacial Lake Whillans, which is buried under 800 meters of Antarctic ice.

However, a British team has not been as fortunate as the Russian and the American team. British researchers, who were involved in the project of drilling Lake Ellsworth in Antarctica, called off the mission on Christmas Day last year following technical difficulties.