An American team, a Russian team and a British team is each preparing to do something never undertaken before: to drill through the sometimes miles-deep snow and ice to enter and study one of the hundreds of remarkable Antarctic liquid lakes that, like the microbes, were unknown until very recently. Scientists say these lakes — mostly freshwater, some containing salts — remain permanently and surprisingly wet because of the enormous, heat-producing weight of the ice, because of the relative warmth of the bedrock and because of the vast system of streams and rivers that also flow unseen beneath the glaciers.
Doubts persist to the possibility of RNA being THE hereditary / genetic material that played THE key role in the creation of life on Earth. However work carried out at the University of Colorado may have shed further light on this. The findings could be a substantial step toward understanding “the very origin of Earthly life,” the lead researcher contends.