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Author Topic:   "Mysterious red cells might be aliens"
Ben!
Member (Idle past 1399 days)
Posts: 1161
From: Hayward, CA
Joined: 10-14-2004


Message 1 of 9 (317049)
06-02-2006 4:17 PM


Mysterious red cells might be aliens
CNN.com - Mysterious redcellsmight be aliens - Jun 2, 2006
In April, Louis... hypothesizes that the samples -- water taken from the mysterious blood-colored showers that fell sporadically across Louis's home state of Kerala in the summer of 2001 -- contain microbes from outer space.
Specifically, Louis has isolated strange, thick-walled, red-tinted cell-like structures about 10 microns in size. Stranger still, dozens of his experiments suggest that the particles may lack DNA yet still reproduce plentifully, even in water superheated to nearly 600 degrees Fahrenheit. (The known upper limit for life in water is about 250 degrees Fahrenheit .)
So how to explain them? Louis speculates that the particles could be extraterrestrial bacteria adapted to the harsh conditions of space and that the microbes hitched a ride on a comet or meteorite that later broke apart in the upper atmosphere and mixed with rain clouds above India.
As usual, I'm not confident that this hasn't been discussed here. But I find it really cool, so I thought I'd give it a shot.
Ben

Replies to this message:
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anglagard
Member (Idle past 837 days)
Posts: 2339
From: Socorro, New Mexico USA
Joined: 03-18-2006


Message 2 of 9 (317052)
06-02-2006 4:35 PM
Reply to: Message 1 by Ben!
06-02-2006 4:17 PM


Fascinating, but direct commentary premature prior to test results. Thanks.

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Quetzal
Member (Idle past 5872 days)
Posts: 3228
Joined: 01-09-2002


Message 3 of 9 (317053)
06-02-2006 4:36 PM
Reply to: Message 1 by Ben!
06-02-2006 4:17 PM


Does anyone have access to that publication? The full text of the article is blocked. Here's the abstract:
quote:
The Red Rain Phenomenon of Kerala and its Possible Extraterrestrial Origin
Godfrey Louis and A. Santhosh Kumar, Astrophysics and Space Science, Received: 18 October 2005 Accepted: 4 November 2005 Published online: 4 April 2006
Abstract A red rain phenomenon occurred in Kerala, India starting from 25th July 2001, in which the rainwater appeared coloured in various localized places that are spread over a few hundred kilometers in Kerala. Maximum cases were reported during the first 10 days and isolated cases were found to occur for about 2 months. The striking red colouration of the rainwater was found to be due to the suspension of microscopic red particles having the appearance of biological cells. These particles have no similarity with usual desert dust. An estimated minimum quantity of 50,000 kg of red particles has fallen from the sky through red rain. An analysis of this strange phenomenon further shows that the conventional atmospheric transport processes like dust storms etc. cannot explain this phenomenon. The electron microscopic study of the red particles shows fine cell structure indicating their biological cell like nature. EDAX analysis shows that the major elements present in these cell like particles are carbon and oxygen. Strangely, a test for DNA using Ethidium Bromide dye fluorescence technique indicates absence of DNA in these cells. In the context of a suspected link between a meteor airburst event and the red rain, the possibility for the extraterrestrial origin of these particles from cometary fragments is discussed.
It might be very interesting to see their data.
Edited by Quetzal, : forgot pub title

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Replies to this message:
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anglagard
Member (Idle past 837 days)
Posts: 2339
From: Socorro, New Mexico USA
Joined: 03-18-2006


Message 4 of 9 (317054)
06-02-2006 4:40 PM
Reply to: Message 3 by Quetzal
06-02-2006 4:36 PM



This message is a reply to:
 Message 3 by Quetzal, posted 06-02-2006 4:36 PM Quetzal has replied

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Quetzal
Member (Idle past 5872 days)
Posts: 3228
Joined: 01-09-2002


Message 5 of 9 (317056)
06-02-2006 4:55 PM
Reply to: Message 4 by anglagard
06-02-2006 4:40 PM


Very interesting, thank you. I have to say the TEM and SEM photographs look a lot like red blood cells. Also, I'm a bit suspicious of peer reviewed journals that allow authors to cite UFO/paranormal websites in their reference list. Other than that, I saw nothing "untoward" in their article. I think I'll await further data as you do.

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jar
Member (Idle past 394 days)
Posts: 34026
From: Texas!!
Joined: 04-20-2004


Message 6 of 9 (317058)
06-02-2006 5:23 PM
Reply to: Message 4 by anglagard
06-02-2006 4:40 PM


Thanks, anglagard. I found the article interesting, but it did raise a few questions. It looks like all of the locations where this happened were coastal. There is a phenomina of algal blooms known as red tide. The images they showed look very much like water samples I've taken during such blooms and the "cell" images looked a lot like photomicrographs of algal samples.
It will be interesting to see what further rresearch in thiss leads to but for now I'd say that it's yet another unknown.

Aslan is not a Tame Lion

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Matt P
Member (Idle past 4775 days)
Posts: 106
From: Tampa FL
Joined: 03-18-2005


Message 7 of 9 (317062)
06-02-2006 5:48 PM
Reply to: Message 1 by Ben!
06-02-2006 4:17 PM


The author is skeptical, which indicates a bit of carefulness on his part, but there are some worries. Bad references are one. An incomplete look at the cells is another- biological tests haven't been performed yet. Also, the author of this article sent some of his samples to Chandra Wickramasinghe, which smacks a bit of crackpotism.
Wickramasinghe is a protege of Fred Hoyle. Hoyle believed that all life has been around since the beginning of the universe and that the flu is caused by cometary dust carrying extraterrestrial organisms. The produced some fuzzy spectra taken of interstellar dust clouds to support their proposals. These spectra were fuzzy enough to match bacteria spectra, orange fruit spectra, soap, cheese, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Naturally they claimed the spectra were of bacteria.
Hoyle and Wickramasinghe are classic examples of experts acting outside of their fields. Both are trained astronomers, but don't know much about biology or chemistry.

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Omnivorous
Member
Posts: 3978
From: Adirondackia
Joined: 07-21-2005
Member Rating: 7.3


Message 8 of 9 (317064)
06-02-2006 6:11 PM
Reply to: Message 5 by Quetzal
06-02-2006 4:55 PM


Interesting comments elsewhere
I poked around about rains of blood a bit, knowing they have been often reported, historically speaking. I don't have an opinion (okay, I have a hunch), but these reader comments at Newscientist.com intrigued me.
These two examples run the whole gamut--from a self-confident technical explanation to a mystery-loving trek through paranormal history, complete with disappearing samples. There are NASA links as well, though I haven't explored them yet. A link to all the comments is below.
I'm surprised that neither your article nor the original paper suggest a fairly obvious explanation for the red rain that fell over Kerala in India (4 March, p 34). If indeed the link between the red rains and a meteorite can be proven, then it has been known for a while that organic compounds in meteorites can form vesicles that look like cells when they interact with water.
This phenomenon is mentioned with regard to the Murchison meteorite on NASA's website: No webpage found at provided URL: web99.arc.nasa.gov/~astrochm/vesicle.html. It is also mentioned in an interview with a co-investigator for the Stardust mission, referring to interstellar ice: http://www.ibiblio.org/astrobiology/index.php?page=interv....
Although I can't find the references, I seem to remember that vesicles obtained by similar processes can be made to "replicate" under certain circumstances.
From Martin Pitt, University of Sheffield
Godfrey Louis's paper on the Kerala red rain will not be the first time the organic nature of such falls has been considered in the scientific press. Charles Fort, in his Book of the Damned (1919), summarises quite a variety of red rains, mostly culled from the scientific press. In the on-line version (The Book of the Damned) Fort scholar "Mr X" (his real name) gives the references for all the cases Fort refers to, many of them from reputable journals including Nature.
A number of the reports Fort cites involve the fall persisting over one area for several days, being preceded by loud "thunderclaps" and on occasions being accompanied by falls of "slag" that may be of meteoric origin.
Also, in the early days of London's Royal Society, its collection included a sample of a "rain of blood" collected in the Isle of Wight by Sir John Oglander. It is unfortunately now lost.
Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan, UK
All the comments:
Page not found | New Scientist
Edited by Omnivorous, : missing word

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anglagard
Member (Idle past 837 days)
Posts: 2339
From: Socorro, New Mexico USA
Joined: 03-18-2006


Message 9 of 9 (317093)
06-02-2006 8:34 PM
Reply to: Message 8 by Omnivorous
06-02-2006 6:11 PM


Re: Interesting comments elsewhere
Hope the conclusion in the article is justified but starting to get the impression malodorous rats may be about. Time will tell.

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