14 DAY TRIAL // Russian scientists are now backtracking on claims of new life at the subglacial Lake Vostok. Last week, one Russian scientist made the quite spectacular claim that the team searching for life in the remote lake had finally found what they were looking for.
Now though, the team's leader stepped in to say that while some life forms have been found, they are all known and all are believed to be contaminants, i.e. not native to the lake, but brought in by the equipment used to drill through the 3,623 m / 2.25 miles of ice.
This puts a damper on things, scientists have been hoping to find strange new life in the isolated lake that hasn't had contact with the surface for millions of years.
The idea is that, if there is life there, it may be able to survive similarly harsh conditions on other planets or moons. But no life has been found so far and contaminants continue to be a problem.