IT BEGIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

[Tollbooth Willie]

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINS

i KNOW IT's Fox News but I read about this project a few days ago and dwsa hnymuhjb

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/02/02/russian-scientists-lost-in-frozen-land-lost/

A group of Russian scientists plumbing the frozen Antarctic in search of a lake buried in ice for tens of millions of years have failed to respond to increasingly anxious U.S. colleagues -- and as the days creep by, the fate of the team remains unknown.
"No word from the ice for 5 days," Dr. John Priscu -- professor of ecology at Montana State University and head of a similar Antarctic exploration program -- told FoxNews.com via email.

The team from Russia's Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI) have been drilling for weeks in an effort to reach isolated Lake Vostok, a vast, dark body of water hidden 13,000 ft. below the ice sheet's surface. The lake hasn't been exposed to air in more than 20 million years.
Priscu said there was no way to get in touch with the team -- and the already cold weather is set to plunge, as Antarctica's summer season ends and winter sets in.
"Temps are dropping below -40 Celsius [-40 degrees Fahrenheit] and they have only a week or so left before they have to winterize the station," he said. "I can only imagine what things must be like at Vostok Station this week."
The team's disappearance could not come at a worse time: They are about 40 feet from their goal of reaching the body of water, Priscu explained, a goal that the team was unable to meet as they raced the coming winter exactly one year ago.
When the winter arrives in the next few weeks, the temperature can get twice as cold. Vostok Station boasts the lowest recorded temperature on Earth: -89.4 degrees Celsius (-129 degrees Fahrenheit).
If the team does reach the lake water, they will bring its water up through the hole and let it freeze there over the winter. The following year they will be able to start research on what they find, Priscu explained.
While there are only a few researchers actually working at the lake, scientists around the globe have been waiting with bated breath to see what the Russian's unearth this weekend.
"We are terribly interested in what they find," Alan Rodger, a scientist at the British Antarctic Survey, told FoxNews.com last year. "This is a lake that we don't think has been exposed for 15 million years. Therefore, if there is life there, we're going to have so many questions. How has it evolved over those years, how has it survived, what does it look like? Won't it be exciting to find something completely new on Planet Earth?"

 

[Eejit]

Someone send in Snake MacReady

 

[mechanicallizard]

IT CAME FROM THE ABYSS

 

[Stigmata]

It's already too late.

 

[Bad^Hat]

Maybe they'll find Half-Life 3 down there.

 

[Vegeta897]

We tried to warn them...

Spoiler

Could have done a "warm them" pun but **** it

 

[MJ12]

Reread the article with this playing, yeah.

 

[ríomhaire]

Shit I really need to get Penumbra Black Plague to train before the cold spreads to here.

 

[Remus]

OK so I wasn't the only one that instantly thought "The thing' when reading this news. Saw this article yesterday.

The russians probably died from the extreme weather conditions. Or maybe they're alive but unable to comunicate because of the weather.

Whatever the case this still is creepy as ****.

 

[Tollbooth Willie]

Maybe they'll find Half-Life 3 down there.

I laughed for reals.

OK so I wasn't the only one that instantly thought "The thing' when reading this news. Saw this article yesterday.

The russians probably died from the extreme weather conditions. Or maybe they're alive but unable to comunicate because of the weather.

Whatever the case this still is creepy as ****.

I read somewhere else they were throwing a bunch of kerosine down there. If that's the case then they probably blew themselves up. So. Probably Russians being Russians.

*Drilling through pristine landscape for the sake of SCIENCE*

Rest of the world: "We're telling you bro, don't do it."

*Russia throws bottles of vodka at rest of world and tell them to eat shit of goat*

 

[Remus]

I read somewhere else they were throwing a bunch of kerosene down there. If that's the case then they probably blew themselves up. So. Probably Russians being Russians.

From what I've read the point of the kerosene is to keep the hole intact. Otherwise with the movement of the ice, the hole would seal itself. The article also said they put safety systems in place so that when they do reach the lake no kerosene would contaminate it.

They want to explore that lake? Fine. But for **** sake, if they bring back a prehistoric fish or something, they'd better keep it in an air tight environment until they make sure it isn't carrying some unknown virus/bacteria/etc.

 

[Tollbooth Willie]

They want to explore that lake? Fine. But for **** sake, if they bring back a prehistoric fish or something, they'd better keep it in an air tight environment until they make sure it isn't carrying some unknown virus/bacteria/etc.

This is pretty much exactly my main concern about this whole thing. I know the chances of there actually being something down there are slim to none, but goddamn. I don't want to catch some super virus.

 

[Maestro]

Aren't they still 40 feet from the depth they wanted? That would mean Lake Vostok is still sealed, right?

 

[Eejit]

You know nothing [Jon Snow]. Viruses and bacteria from down there couldn't do shit to us. They'd be adapted for a drastically different environment, no way they could be pathogenic.

 

[RakuraiTenjin]

Fox News is a great news source. It's got a conservative political bias in its commentary of course, but there's no need to say "yes I know its fox news" when the article is a breaking news, investigative report, or regular journalism (like this piece) not relating to politics. People who refuse to read, listen, or watch a news story just because it's on fox news are just as retarded as people who refuse to see a breaking story from MSNBC because their commentary is left biased.


As far as the team I bet they're all dead.

Aren't they still 40 feet from the depth they wanted? That would mean Lake Vostok is still sealed, right?

Famous last words.

 

[Remus]

As far as the team I bet they're all dead.

They're asimilated.

 

[mechanicallizard]

Soon they will be in control.

 

[Remus]

^^ROFL

"Stop smiling bitch! This is serious business! *prod* *prod*

 

[Mr. Djees]

Se til helvete og kom dere vekk. Det er ikke en bikkje, det er en slags ting! Det imiterer en bikkje, det er ikke virkelig! KOM DERE VEKK IDIOTER!

 

[Unfocused]

Vodka freezes at -30C so I guess they didn't have anything to keep them going.

 

[Viperidae]

-40 Celsius [-40 degrees Fahrenheit]

I thought it was only Russians who drank on the job.

 

[Unfocused]

^Have you considered the possibility that it might actually be true?

 

[Viperidae]

My mind is blown.

 

[Remus]

My mind is blown.

With kerosene?

 

[Maestro]

With kerosene?

No, he has a mentally gay roommate.

 

[Dandan]

http://www.livescience.com/18311-russian-scientists-poised-reach-ice-buried-antarctic-lake-vostok.html

this site says they're fine

 

[15357]

I actually kinda hope that they find something cool, like an elder god or something.

 

[Maestro]

I actually kinda hope that they find something cool, like an elder god or something.

Have you read Lovecraft? That would not be cool, that would be the most mind-bogglingly horrifying thing in history.

 

[Stylo]

I actually kinda hope that they find something cool, like an elder god or something.

Yetis. Socially organised Yetis.

 

[Bad^Hat]

Have you read Lovecraft? That would not be cool, that would be the most mind-bogglingly horrifying thing in history.

What about Wuvcraft?

 

[Remus]

Have you read Lovecraft? That would not be cool, that would be the most mind-bogglingly horrifying thing in history.

It's OK, Bruce Campbell will take care of that Ctuloo felar.

 

[Maestro]

It's OK, Bruce Campbell will take care of that Ctuloo felar.

Point...

 

[Iron Kat]

I can't help feeling that if anything does get found it could turn into a real-life Doctor Who situation. Where are the Time Lords when you need them?

 

[morgs]

Something a lot cooler than Doctor Who, I'd hope.

 

[Stylo]

You know nothing [Jon Snow]. Viruses and bacteria from down there couldn't do shit to us. They'd be adapted for a drastically different environment, no way they could be pathogenic.

Unless of course there are other forms of life down there and the virus / bacteria has adapted so that they spread it to each other...?

Also, this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16907998

 

[Eejit]

Unless of course there are other forms of life down there and the virus / bacteria has adapted so that they spread it to each other...?

Still no. How many diseases affect multiple different mammal species? How many affect both fish and birds? Mammals and reptiles? How many diseases crossing species barrier are highly virulent?
Pathogens must be adapted to successfully infect a host.

 

[dfc05]

HIV. Avian flu. Swine flu. Mad cow disease. Toxoplasmosis. The Bubonic Plague. Malaria. River blindness.

Not all killers of both the host and human species, but at least carried by a non-human species.

I agree it's very unlikely that we will get a disease from this lake. But your hypothetical questions kind of work against your point given the nature of several major epidemic scares :O. Actually one could argue that we might be more susceptible to bacteria that we haven't had the chance to co-evolve with/develop immune resistance to. But of course the overwhelming majority of bacteria are not harmful, so the statistics (but not the biology) would suggest it's unlikely.

 

[Eejit]

Mammals. Mammals and birds. Mammals. Mammals. Mammals with insect vectors.. Mammals with insect vectors. Mammals with insect vectors.

You may not have noticed my point but it becomes progressively rarer for a pathogen to affect different species the less closely related they are. You find a bunch infecting various mammals and only a very rare few viruses which affect different classes (such as flu) though even then they need to mutate and/or cross with different related strains.

Pathogens need to be adapted to their host prior to the host needing to adapt immunity to them. One does not simply walk into a host organism.

 

[Remus]

Yeah but, SUPER ALIEN VIRUS!! That infects anything!

 

[Bad^Hat]

What about the cthuflu.