Friday, June 2, 2006; Posted: 12:36 p.m. EDT (16:36 GMT)
Mysterious red cells might be aliens
By Jebediah Reed
Popular Science
Scientists have yet to identify these unusual red particles.
(PopSci.com) -- As bizarre as it may seem, the sample jars brimming
with cloudy, reddish rainwater in Godfrey Louis's laboratory in
southern India may hold, well, aliens.
In April, Louis, a solid-state physicist at Mahatma Gandhi University,
published a paper in the prestigious peer-reviewed journal Astrophysics
and Space Science in which he 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.
If his theory proves correct, the cells would be the first confirmed
evidence of alien life and, as such, could yield tantalizing new clues
to the origins of life on Earth.
Last winter, Louis sent some of his samples to astronomer Chandra
Wickramasinghe and his colleagues at Cardiff University in Wales, who
are now attempting to replicate his experiments; Wickramasinghe expects
to publish his initial findings later this year.
Meanwhile, more down-to-earth theories abound. One Indian government
investigation conducted in 2001 lays blame for what some have called
the "blood rains" on algae.
Other theories have implicated fungal spores, red dust swept up from
the Arabian peninsula, even a fine mist of blood cells produced by a
meteor striking a high-flying flock of bats.
Louis and his colleagues dismiss all these theories, pointing to the
fact that both algae and fungus possess DNA and that blood cells have
thin walls and die quickly when exposed to water and air.
More important, they argue, blood cells don't replicate. "We've already
got some stunning pictures -- transmission electron micrographs -- of
these cells sliced in the middle," Wickramasinghe says. "We see them
budding, with little daughter cells inside the big cells."
Louis's theory holds special appeal for Wickramasinghe. A quarter of a
century ago, he co-authored the modern theory of panspermia, which
posits that bacteria-riddled space rocks seeded life on Earth.
"If it's true that life was introduced by comets four billion years
ago," the astronomer says, "one would expect that microorganisms are
still injected into our environment from time to time. This could be
one of those events."
The next significant step, explains University of Sheffield
microbiologist Milton Wainwright, who is part of another British team
now studying Louis's samples, is to confirm whether the cells truly
lack DNA. So far, one preliminary DNA test has come back positive.
"Life as we know it must contain DNA, or it's not life," he says. "But
even if this organism proves to be an anomaly, the absence of DNA
wouldn't necessarily mean it's extraterrestrial."
Louis and Wickramasinghe are planning further experiments to test the
cells for specific carbon isotopes. If the results fall outside the
norms for life on Earth, it would be powerful new evidence for Louis's
idea, of which even Louis himself remains skeptical.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/06/02/red.rain/index.html
.
|
