Epigraph:
Do not the disbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were a closed-up mass, then We opened them out? And We made from water every living thing. Will they not then believe? (Al Quran 21:31)
Antarctica, the coldest place on Earth, teems with microscopic life. Tiny organisms dwell on the ice and live inside glaciers, and now, researchers confirm, a rich microbial ecosystem persists underneath the thick ice sheet, where no sunlight has been felt for millions of years.
Nearly 4,000 species of microbes inhabit Lake Whillans, which lies beneath 2,625 feet (800 meters) of ice in West Antarctica, researchers report today (Aug. 20) in the journal Nature. These are the first organisms ever retrieved from a subglacial Antarctic lake.
“We found not just that things are alive, but that there’s an active ecosystem,” said lead study author Brent Christner, a microbiologist at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. “If you had to think up what would be the coolest scenario for an ecosystem in Antarctica, you couldn’t make this up.” [See Photos of Lake Whillans’ Drilling Project & Microbial Life]
Read further in the Huffington Post
Additional Reading
Religion and Science: The Indispensable God-hypothesis
Albert Einstein’s search for God
Human Soul: The Final Frontier?
Charles Darwin: An Epiphany for the Muslims, A Catastrophe for the Christians
Darwinian Evolution: Islam or Christianity?
Exposing Creationism of Zakir Naik, Tahir ul Qadari, Yusuf Estes and Harun Yahya
Pope John Paul II and Me: ‘Truth Cannot Contradict Truth!’
Categories: Biology, Environment, Europe and Australia, Evolution