PAGING JAMES ARNESS:

Earth's last great virgin habitat invaded: A borehole through Lake Vostok's polar ice could reveal hidden lifeforms (Alissa de Carbonnel in Moscow and David Randall, 6 February 2011, The Independent)

For 15 million years, a vast icebound lake has been sealed deep beneath Antarctica's frozen crust, possibly hiding prehistoric or other unknown life. Now Russian scientists are on the brink of piercing through to its secrets.

They suspect its depths will reveal new life forms, show how the planet was before the ice age and how life evolved. It could even offer a glimpse at what conditions for life exist in the similar extremes of Mars and Jupiter's moon Europa.