Topical science time! This recent news article caught my eye the other day. Russian scientists have succeeded in drilling through the 3.7 km thick layer of ice covering Lake Vostok in Antartica and hope to be able to extract samples from the lake later this year. Lake Vostok has been completely sealed off from the surface for about twenty million years. This makes it a very interesting place to look for life forms, and what they’re doing in Lake Vostok right now is not a million miles away from the way we’ll likely find the first alien life forms.