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Explanation: What are these bubbles frozen into Lake Baikal? Methane. Lake Baikal, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Russia, is the world's largest (by volume), oldest, and deepest lake, containing over 20% of the world's fresh water. The lake is also a vast storehouse of methane, a greenhouse gas that, if released, could potentially increase the amount of infrared light absorbed by Earth's atmosphere, and so increase the average temperature of the entire planet. Fortunately, the amount of methane currently bubbling out is not climatologically important. It is not clear what would happen, though, were temperatures to significantly increase in...

A recent DNA research on the bones of a boy who lived along the shores of Lake Baikal in Siberia shows... that Native Americans share much of their genetic material with Middle Easterners and Europeans...Published in the journal Nature, the study of the genome of the boy, who lived twenty-four thousand years ago, shows that fully one-third of his DNA was from West Eurasian peoples linked to the Middle East and Europe....The study... could help clear up some long-standing mysteries regarding... some genetic singularities.Co-author and ancient DNA specialist Eske Willerslev of the University of Copenhagen states "these results were a...

The genome of a young boy buried at Mal’ta near Lake Baikal in eastern Siberia some 24,000 years ago has turned out to hold two surprises for anthropologists. The first is that the boy’s DNA matches that of Western Europeans, showing that during the last Ice Age people from Europe had reached farther east across Eurasia than previously supposed. Though none of the Mal’ta boy’s skin or hair survive, his genes suggest he would have had brown hair, brown eyes and freckled skin. The second surprise is that his DNA also matches a large proportion — some 25 percent —...

The irresistible gaze of "puppy-dog eyes" has roots in thousands of years of human evolution alongside domesticated dogs, says anthropologist Robert Losey. Anyone who owns a dog is familiar with the "gaze" -- that hypnotic, imploring stare that demands reciprocation. It can seem to hold a world of mystery and longing, or just pure bafflement at what makes humans tick. It turns out that the look of mutual recognition between human and dog reflects thousands of years of evolution, a bond programmed into our very body chemistry. Last spring a research team in Japan discovered that both species release a...

Putin dives to bottom of world's deepest lake Prime Minister Vladimir Putin Saturday dived to the bottom of the world's deepest lake aboard a mini-submarine, in a highly mediatized stunt unusual even by the standards of the Russian hardman. Putin, wearing special thermal blue overalls, was able to examine the unique flora and fauna of Lake Baikal in Siberia during his four-hour journey underwater aboard the Mir-1 submarine. "I've never experienced anything like it in my life," the prime minister, who served eight years as Russian president, told state television aboard the support ship after resurfacing. "It's a special feeling....

Chinese and Russian scientists will conduct a joint survey in Lake Baikal. The news was released by Chinese Academy of Sciences at a press conference held Saturday in Tianjin. The 22-day survey is scheduled to be launched in August. Scientists from both countries will cooperate for the first time to test the influence of changes in Lake Baikal's eco-system on North China. Lake Baikal is located in southeastern Siberia and holds a volume of 23,600 cubic kilometers of water, 20 percent of the world's fresh surface water.