Red rain could prove that aliens have landed

[Dover]

Red rain could prove that aliens have landed

Amelia Gentleman and Robin McKie
Sunday March 5, 2006
The Observer


There is a small bottle containing a red fluid on a shelf in Sheffield University's microbiology laboratory. The liquid looks cloudy and uninteresting. Yet, if one group of scientists is correct, the phial contains the first samples of extraterrestrial life isolated by researchers.
Inside the bottle are samples left over from one of the strangest incidents in recent meteorological history. On 25 July, 2001, blood-red rain fell over the Kerala district of western India. And these rain bursts continued for the next two months. All along the coast it rained crimson, turning local people's clothes pink, burning leaves on trees and falling as scarlet sheets at some points.

Investigations suggested the rain was red because winds had swept up dust from Arabia and dumped it on Kerala. But Godfrey Louis, a physicist at Mahatma Gandhi University in Kottayam, after gathering samples left over from the rains, concluded this was nonsense. 'If you look at these particles under a microscope, you can see they are not dust, they have a clear biological appearance.' Instead Louis decided that the rain was made up of bacteria-like material that had been swept to Earth from a passing comet. In short, it rained aliens over India during the summer of 2001.

Not everyone is convinced by the idea, of course. Indeed most researchers think it is highly dubious. One scientist who posted a message on Louis's website described it as 'bullshit'.

But a few researchers believe Louis may be on to something and are following up his work. Milton Wainwright, a microbiologist at Sheffield, is now testing samples of Kerala's red rain. 'It is too early to say what's in the phial,' he said. 'But it is certainly not dust. Nor is there any DNA there, but then alien bacteria would not necessarily contain DNA.'

cont'd

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,1723937,00.html

[niyad]

1. thinking about anne' mccaffrey's "pern" novels and the weird falling

substance they called "thread"
hmmmmmm

[Desertrose]

9. That's exactly what I thought...

THREAD!

Ready the dragons.....

[NYC]

2. I thought most things burned up when entering the earth's atmosphere.

...bacteria-like material that had been swept to Earth from a passing comet...

Don't they jump through hoops to make space capsules, shuttles, etc. fireproof?

Many years ago, a yellow rain fell (in China, I think), and it turned out to be bee pee. No kidding. It was urine from a large swarm of bees.

[Wilms]

3. Gee. Talk about acid rain. n/t

[Canuckistanian]

4. If the particles are small enough, they won't burn up

Assuming that they were not travelling that fast (in relation to Earth) and light enough to be buoyed by the air, then they would float down harmlessly to the surface.

Think about a piece of paper dropped from a great height. It probably wouldn't burn up, just gradually slow down and make it back unharmed.

[NYC]

5. Thanks.

So these little red bacteria just floated down.

I don't know which is worse, getting coated with alien red stuff or some chemical from a nearby polluting factory.

[aquart]

6. Blood rain. How biblical.

[StClone]

7. Occam's Razor

The simplest explanation is oft times the correct one. Raining red space bacteria in the same place for months couldn't happen as the earth is moving around the sun while it rotates. A cloud of dust sifting down for months is therefore not likely for starters. Second, what's there to prove it isn't dust? Third what makes Louis so sure it's extraterrestrial?

[peacetalksforall]

8. Guess it's in the chemistry, but fallig in one place is difficult to

explain. That would have to be 'splained' in the 'plainest' of English. I agree with you.