Antarctic Lake Vostok yields 'new bacterial life'
Posted by Sane Spirit on Sunday, March 17, 2013
Under: In the News
Last year, the team drilled through almost 4km (2.34 miles) of ice to reach the lake and retrieve samples.
Vostok is thought to have been cut off from the surface for millions of years.
This has raised the possibility that such isolated bodies of water might host microbial life forms new to science.
"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 Sergei Bulat, of the genetics laboratory at the St Petersburg Institute of Nuclear Physics.
"We are calling this life form unclassified and unidentified," he explained.
Dr Bulat added that close attention was focused on one particular form of bacteria whose DNA was less than 86% similar to previously existing forms.
"A level of 90% usually means that the organism is unknown."
However, other researchers said the data needed to be carefully verified by other experts before the claims could be confirmed.
Antarctic Lake Vostok yields 'new bacterial life
OOPS,,,someone jumped the gun,,,
MOSCOW — Russian scientists on Saturday dismissed initial reports that they had found a wholly new type of bacteria in a mysterious subglacial lake in Antarctica.
Sergei Bulat of the genetics laboratory at the Saint Petersburg Institute of Nuclear Physics had said Thursday that samples obtained from the underground Lake Vostok in May 2012 contained a bacteria bearing no resemblance to existing types.
But the head of the genetics laboratory at the same institute said on Saturday that the strange life forms were in fact nothing but contaminants.
"We found certain specimen, although not many. All of them were contaminants" that were brought there by the lab during research, Vladimir Korolyov told the Interfax news agency.
"That is why we cannot say that previously-unknown life was found," he said.
Russia admits no new life form found in Antarctic lake
Vostok is thought to have been cut off from the surface for millions of years.
This has raised the possibility that such isolated bodies of water might host microbial life forms new to science.
"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 Sergei Bulat, of the genetics laboratory at the St Petersburg Institute of Nuclear Physics.
"We are calling this life form unclassified and unidentified," he explained.
Dr Bulat added that close attention was focused on one particular form of bacteria whose DNA was less than 86% similar to previously existing forms.
"A level of 90% usually means that the organism is unknown."
However, other researchers said the data needed to be carefully verified by other experts before the claims could be confirmed.
Antarctic Lake Vostok yields 'new bacterial life
OOPS,,,someone jumped the gun,,,
MOSCOW — Russian scientists on Saturday dismissed initial reports that they had found a wholly new type of bacteria in a mysterious subglacial lake in Antarctica.
Sergei Bulat of the genetics laboratory at the Saint Petersburg Institute of Nuclear Physics had said Thursday that samples obtained from the underground Lake Vostok in May 2012 contained a bacteria bearing no resemblance to existing types.
But the head of the genetics laboratory at the same institute said on Saturday that the strange life forms were in fact nothing but contaminants.
"We found certain specimen, although not many. All of them were contaminants" that were brought there by the lab during research, Vladimir Korolyov told the Interfax news agency.
"That is why we cannot say that previously-unknown life was found," he said.
Russia admits no new life form found in Antarctic lake
In : In the News