Nearly four kilometers under the surface of the Antarctic ice is Lake Vostok, a giant freshwater lake that's the world's third-largest by volume. It's existed for 35 million years, and it's been sealed off from the air for the past 15 million of those. No human has peeked under that ice. The water could hold ancient forms of life that we've never seen before.
Knowing it's there, do do you leave a pristine time capsule alone? Or do you fire up your giant drill, grab a few thousand gallons of antifreeze, and hack your way in there? A team of Russian scientists, knowing their answer (and apparently never having seen this episode of The X-Files), has been trying their hardest to get through the ice. Last week they were within 30 meters of the ancient lake when they had to quit.
The Russians have been trying to crack the surface ...
