All Eyes on Lake Vostok...To Be Breached Today!!!

yz plz

[link to news.sciencemag.org]

:kickass:

what are your names in there

Comment From Peter Rejcek
Would Scott talk about the status and goals of the USAP's own lake-drilling project, WISSARD, which will look into the subglacial Whillans Ice Stream region.
3:18

Scott Borg:
The WISSARD project is a very interesting one. It will attempt to drill into a lake that is not far from ocean - so its not as isolated as Subglacial Lake Vostok or Subglacial Lake Ellsworth (that the British Antarctic Survey is drilling this season). But the goals are similar in terms of wanting to learn more about the sub-ice sheet water system. Its really fascinating because we now know that there is a really extensive, and active subglacial water system -a dn even 10 years ago scientists didn't know there was so much water or that it was moving around so much. But these projects are all very ambitious so there are lots of technical and scientific challenges.

They are leaking some good information.

what fossils can be find in antarctica
3:21

Scott Borg:
Lots of different fossils - from many time periods. Dinosaurs - for instance - like Cryolophosaurus (frozen crested lizzard). And penguin fossils - largest fossil penguin is about 6 ft tall. And lots of plant fossils - some that helped prove that the southern continents were once part of the supercontinent Gondwana.

Last Edited by El Quisqueyano on 01/19/2012 03:22 PM

was that your question?

No...Comment from Peter

Which means its info they WANT you to know. Do you think they are going to release true information about their discoveries to the public? Is this not an extremely classified area?

Why yes, yes it is.

theyre using kerosene and Freon as antifreeze

THIS

Thank you!

Let's see what they say and take it from there.

Screw the Kraken! BRING ON Cthulhu!

Thanks for the link!

Cool stuff

:zombiesquid:

yes i saw the national geographic page on these giant penguins.
brought lovecraft back to mind because those damn giant albino penguins he wrote of scared me.i dont know WHY a giant penguin would scare me but it does..and then i saw the article and its accompanying photo in NG and i thought it proved (in my mind anyway) that yes lovecraft wrote of what he knew of...things he was intimately aware of.

Cool! Elqisqeyano got through in the chat!

sweeettt

Comment From Guest
Would you say the impacts of climate change are visible in Antarctica? As scientists who research there, in your opinions, what specific places in Antarctica provide the most compelling evidence that climate change is happening here and now?
3:43

Gretchen Hofmann:
As an Antarctic researcher, I have worked there since 1995 and over the years we do see evidence of climate change, in my opinion. As a couple examples, there is the warming in the Antarctic peninsula where surface seawater temperatures are rising at the fastest rate measured in the planet. We also see the decline of the extent of sea ice and that has had consequences for animals such as penguins that rely on sea ice for habitat. Finally, there are other issues such as the collapse of the Larsen ice shelf that indicate we are seeing the consequences of change now.

ur a celebrity!

This is kind of messed up. Talk about evasion.



Comment From Davey
Have either of you heard or read about a large metallic object in Lake Vostic? If so, what are your conclusions?
3:49

Scott Borg:
No - I've not heard of any evidence of a large metallic object in Lake Vostok. Of course its easy to speculate. But there is really good geophysical data (magnetics and gravity) that show the lake basin to be related to a well-understood geological structures with the continent - so pretty normal stuff - but still interesting. Some of the best data were taken by Columbia University with NSF support and are all published.

I would like an scientific look at the result of all the underwater volcanoes and their affect on ocean tempatures.

Comment From Shawn Doughty
Have you learned anything new about evolution from being there?
3:50

Gretchen Hofmann:
In terms of what studying biology in the Antarctic has done for our understanding of evolution, the antifreeze proteins that are found in Antarctic fishes are an excellent example and probably one of the best things we have learned in Polar Biology as done on the ice. This work, pioneered by Art DeVries, demonstrated that Antarctic fish have proteins in their blood that prevent ice from forming in their bodies. The gene that codes for these proteins is sort of a 'Macguyver" of a gene that makes a enzyme in the fishes gut. In other words, selection acted on the fish and the molecular solution as driven through the process of evolution was a modified gene that produced a circulating protein, the antifreeze. We now know there are many classes of these moelcules and that they also are an example of convergent evolution because they are found in other organisms - Arctic fish, plants and beetles. Basically the proteins all do the same thing in unrelated organisms.

Move along....Nothing to see here... NSA usually covers all this kinda stuff.....

3:49


[Comment From Davey Davey : ]
Have either of you heard or read about a large metallic object in Lake Vostic? If so, what are your conclusions?
Thursday January 19, 2012 3:49 Davey
3:49

Scott Borg:
No - I've not heard of any evidence of a large metallic object in Lake Vostok. Of course its easy to speculate. But there is really good geophysical data (magnetics and gravity) that show the lake basin to be related to a well-understood geological structures with the continent - so pretty normal stuff - but still interesting. Some of the best data were taken by Columbia University with NSF support and are all published.