I have trouble choosing the best word for this

[YankeyMCC]

Wow! Or maybe Cool! is more suited :

Antarctic lake drilling mission edges closer

(snip)
The project by UK engineers to drill through the two-mile-thick ice-sheet is scheduled for the end of the year.

The aims are to search for signs of life in the waters and to extract sediments from the lake floor to better understand the past climate.

It is is one of the most challenging British scientific projects for years.
(snip)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16538129

[dipsydoodle]

1. Maybe a race now between this and the Russians

From a year ago ;

Lake Vostok: Out of Reach for Another Year?

It’s looking less likely Russians will reach unexplored sub-Antarctic Lake Vostok this year. A few weeks ago I wrote about their attempt to drill into one of the last frontiers on Earth — one that could be home to incredibly interesting unknown life. Today is the last day — if they don’t make it now, it won’t happen until next season. From Science:

Russian scientists drilling toward Lake Vostok, an enormous body of fresh water sealed off beneath Antarctic ice for 35 million years, have until Sunday to reach their goal before flying out at the end of the summer field season, NPR reports. But with less than 30 meters to go, it’s looking like they’ll fall short and have to resume months later. “They didn’t get to the moon first; they really, really want to be the first people to drill into a subglacial lake. And they want to do it right,” geoscientist Robin Bell of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, New York, told NPR.

And here is a more in-depth account from NPR. It reveals there may indeed be some friction over the perhaps characteristic Russian methods noted in my last post on Vostok (anyone who knows about the differences between the US and Russian space programs will understand what I mean. We just have different risk tolerances):

Jim Barnes has been watching this process closely, as head of a nongovernmental organization called the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition.

http://theartfulamoeba.com/2011/02/06/lake-vostok-out-of-reach-for-another-year/

See also : http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-01/07/russians-penetrate-lake-vostok

and http://news.discovery.com/earth/lake-vostok-antarctica-environment-110209.html

I know that the overall issue is that of risk of contamination when either breaks through.

I'm wondering if they'll find a packet of frozen peas marked best before 15,000,000 BC.

[Warpy]

2. They've found blue green algae in the Atacama

which is the driest place on earth, recent dating suggesting the last time any rain fell there was 1.3 million years ago.

The algae exist within salt nodules on the desert floor.

If there is an environment that doesn't immediately incinerate everything or keep it close to absolute zero, my guess is that there is a life form that will exploit it.