[meteorite-list] More Twilight Zone Stuff: Red Rain Rapidly Rears when Roasted

From: Mr EMan <mstreman53_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2009 10:37:28 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <219673.64573.qm_at_web55204.mail.re4.yahoo.com>

>From Last Fall but I missed the part about it multiplying when heated to 300C

<http://www.world-science.net/exclusives/080908_redrain.htm>

Report: cells ?from space? have unusual makeup
Sept. 8, 2008 Special to World Science

A line?age of odd mi?crobes that may have crashed in?to Earth aboard a me?te?or in 2001 seem to con?tain mo?le?cules not found in Earthly cells, two sci?en?tists are re?port?ing.

Al?though many re?main skep?ti?cal over the re?mark?a?ble claim of mi?nus?cule ex?tra?ter?res?tri?al vis?i?tors, God?frey Lou?is, head of the phys?ics de?part?ment at Co?chin Uni?ver?s?ity of Sci?ence and Tech?nol?o?gy in In?dia, pre?sented the find?ings at a sci?en?tif?ic con?fer?ence in San Die?go on Aug. 12.

The mys?ter?ious orbs give off a blue fluor?es?cence un?der ul?tra?vio?let light, ac?cord?ing to re?search?ers. (Courtesy G. Louis & A. S. Kumar)
The meet?ing was or?gan?ized by SPIE, the In?terna?t?ional So?ci?e?ty for Op?ti?cal En?gi?neer?ing. The ac?ro?nym re?flects its form?er name as So?ci?e?ty of Photo-Op?ti?cal In?stru?menta?t?ion En?gi?neers.

The mi?crobes give off un?sual sorts of flu?o?res?cence un?der spe?cif?ic light?ing con?di?tions, which fol?low pat?terns nev?er seen in nor?mal cells, ac?cord?ing to Lou?is and San?thosh Ku?mar of Ma?hat?ma Gan?dhi Uni?ver?s?ity in In?dia, co-authors of the re?port. The likely ex?plana?t?ion, they added, is that the par?t?i?cles con?tain mo?le?cules not found in Earthly or?gan?isms.

Lou?is and Kumar pre?vi?ously re?ported that the odd part?i?cles con?tain no DNA, al?though they rep?li?cate abun?dantly in fe?ro?cious heat by spawn?ing new ?cells? from with?in them?selves. It was these off?spring whose flu?o?res?cence prop?er?ties the pair tested.

Mys?te?ri?ous, ti?ny red glob?ules fell to Earth in a red rain that pelted parts of south?ern In?dia spo?rad?ic?ally for about two months in 2001, caus?ing wide?spread puz?zle?ment. The event, how?ev?er, was the lat?est in a se?ries of re?ports of col?ored rains from var?i?ous places stretch?ing back cen?turies, some bet?ter doc?u?mented than oth?ers.

Lou?is and Kumar say the orbs could be cells from space be?cause they have bi?o?log?i?cal char?ac?ter?is?tics but match no known life form. A space rock could have bro?ken up in the at?mos?phere and seeded clouds with these org?an?isms, the pair ar?gues, citing wit?ness reports of an air?burst just before the showers. Oth?er sci?en?tists have con?ced?ed the par?t?i?cles are mys?ti?fy?ing, but the claim of live cells from space is so bi?zarre that many are hold?ing back any as?sent.

Some note that the haz?ards of jour?ney through space, in?clud?ing in?tense radia?t?ion and ex?tra?or?di?nary trav?el times, make the pos?si?bil?ity of bac?te?ri?al trans?fer among dif?fer?ent so?lar sys?tems un?like?ly.

?Ex?changes of bac?te?ria be?tween plan?ets in dif?fer?ent so?lar sys?tems are only pos?si?ble dur?ing the birth clus?ter stage of the sys?tems,? when they?re sit?u?at?ed close to?geth?er in a star clus?ter, wrote sci?en?tists with NASA and oth?er in?sti?tu?tions in a re?port this month. Our own so?lar sys?tem is far from be?ing in such a stage. That pa?per has been ac?cept?ed for pub?lica?t?ion in the re?search jour?nal As?t?ro?phys?i?cal Jour?nal Let?ters.

On the oth?er hand, re?search?ers with Kris?tian?stad Uni?ver?s?ity in Swe?den and oth?er in?sti?tu?tions re?ported on Sept. 8 that some ti?ny Earth an?i?mals called tardi?grades proved sur?pris?ingly re?sil?ient in out?er space. Dried-out tardi?grades lived for 10 days un?pro?tected in that en?vi?ron?ment, and went on to re?pro?duce, these sci?en?tists wrote in the Sept. 9 is?sue of the re?search jour?nal Cur?rent Bi?ol?o?gy.

Lou?is and Ku?mar are per?sist?ing in their stud?ies; their ideas have gained sup?port from fig?ures such as Chan?dra Wick?ra?mas?inghe, di?rec?tor of the Car?diff Cen?tre for As?tro?bi?ol?o?gy at Car?diff Uni?ver?s?ity, U.K.

In his pre?s?enta?t?ion, Lou?is said that ?red cell? spawns un?der var?i?ous light?ing con?di?tions ex?h?bited prop?er?ties vi?o?lat?ing a sci?en?tif?ic prin?ci?ple known as Kasha?s Rule, found to have few ex?cep?tions else?where. The rule has to do with flu?o?res?cence, the phe?nom?e?non in which a sub?stance emits light of one col?or up?on stimula?t?ion by light from anoth?er col?or. Kasha?s rule holds that in gen?er?al, the col?or of the ar?riv?ing light and the emit?ted light are un?re?lat?ed.

To the con?tra?ry, Lou?is found that in the red glob?ules? ?off?spring,? alone among cells on Earth, these col?ors are re?lat?ed by a dis?tinct pat?tern.

?Hence the pres?ence of new kind of bio-mo?le?cules can be in?ferred,? Lou?is wrote in the pre?sented pa?per. ?Or?gan?isms repli?cat?ing at 300 de?grees [Cel?si?us] and show?ing this kind of autoflu?o?res?cence are cur?rently un?known to ex?ist on earth yet sev?er?al thou?sand kilo?grams of these cells came down through the red rain.? The orig?i?nal par?ent cells are al?so un?der flu?o?res?cence test?ing and re?sults will be re?ported lat?er, Lou?is said.
Received on Mon 16 Feb 2009 01:37:28 PM PST