December 11, 2012 | David

I was rather chilly walking to work today. But a frosty London morning is nothing compared to the howling wind and freezing cold of Antarctica.

Scientists in Antarctica are using hot water to drill through a two-mile-thick ice sheet to carefully extract water and sediment samples from a huge pristine lake. Despite the extreme pressure, low temperature and pitch dark, they hope to discover bacterial life. I think it’s intriguing – as long as they don’t contaminate the lake with their equipment!