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Antarctica's Lake Vostok holds hidden menagerie of microbial life
Antarctica’s Lake Vostok doesn’t seem like the most hospitable home on the planet for any kind of life. Trapped under a glacier 2.3 miles thick, it’s subject to extreme pressures, extreme cold, extreme heat (possibly from hydrothermal vents) and lack of light. And yet scientists studying ice cores from the sub-glacial lake have discovered 3,507 distinct genetic fragments indicating a remarkable diversity of life under the ice.
By Amina Khan
July 9, 2013