A meeting with the unknown

After more than two decades of drilling, Russian scientists have reached the pristine surface of a gigantic freshwater lake - Lake Vostok in Antarctica - and what they find there could change everything.The vast depths of Lake Vostok could hold life from the distant past, or clues to the search for life on other planets.It may allow a glimpse into microbial life forms that existed before the Ice Age, or precious evidence of what conditions must be like on the ice-crust moons of Jupiter and Saturn, or under Mars' polar ice caps - and whether life could survive there.
The project, however, has drawn strong fears that 60 metric tons (66 tons) of lubricants and antifreeze used in the drilling may contaminate the pristine lake, which is roughly the size of Lake Ontario in Canada.The Russian researchers have insisted that the bore would only slightly touch the lake's surface and a surge in pressure will send the water rushing up the shaft where it will freeze, immediately sealing out the toxic chemicals.