The lake's location in the heart of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet makes it one of the most inhospitable environments on the planet.

BBC: Antarctic Lake Vostok yields 'new bacterial life'

This research could help scientists find out more about possible life in Lake Vostok, the largest of over 70 sub-glacial lakes on the White Continent, which lies more than four km beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet.

BBC: Antarctic lake's secret water