What lives under a glacier? Signs of life discovered in lake buried HALF A MILE beneath West Antarctic Ice Sheet

The first tantalising signs of life have been detected in waters from a subglacial lake half a mile beneath the snowy wastes of the Antarctic, scientists said.

Water retrieved from sub-glacial Lake Whillans contains tiny cells which glowed green in response to DNA-sensitive dye applied in preliminary tests.

While researchers need to carry out further time-consuming tests to see whether the cells are actually still alive, it offers the possibility that there could be as yet unknown life lurking beneath the ice.

The findings come a fortnight after a team of scientist adventurers made the perilous 1,000 mile journey from the U.S.-controlled McMurdo Station to the location of Lake Whillans.

The researchers from the U.S.-led Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling project spent weeks boring down 2,600ft through the thick ice to make a hole big enough to collect samples.

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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2272015/Signs-life-discovered-sub-glacial-lake-buried-half-mile-beneath-snowy-wastes-West-Antarctic-Ice-Sheet.html#axzz2JiLdnSK1