In July 2001, the rain turned red in India. And not just red - there were reports of yellow, green and black rain in the months that followed. One of the first theories to emerge was that it was simply sand or dust picked up from a desert, but a local physicist found that under a microscope, the water contained cells that looked like bugs. Five years later, he published a theory suggesting the bugs that turned the rain red in India may have come from a comet that exploded above the Earth and seeded clouds.
Today, after a further four years of studying the cells, joined by a leading panspermia theorist from the UK, a professor has published claims that they are unlike anything found on Earth. He says the cells - inert at room temperature - begin to reproduce at 121C. While many spores on Earth can survive that kind of extreme heat, none have yet been discovered that can reproduce in those conditions, much less require it to begin reproducing. The team also found an UNUSUAL PATTERN in the way the cells changed colour under UV light, known as "fluorescence behaviour". They said it was "in remarkable correspondence" with red emissions from the Red Rectangle planetary nebula some 2300 light years away, "suggesting, though not proving, an extraterrestrial origin".
While the panspermia angle is already being rejected by the scientific community at large, there's plenty of interest in the final finding of the team - the cells contain no DNA. "As a biologist, let me assure you that a cell-sized and shaped organism that reproduces, lives off LB and doesn't appear to have any nucleic acid template (DNA or RNA) is a revolutionary discovery in and of itself." The only lifeforms that occur or Earth without DNA, according to another commentor, are proteins known as "prions", best known on Earth as the cause of Mad Cow Disease. The team's findings are yet to be verified.
Stanislaw Lec
LARGEST QUAKES -
This morning -
6.3 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS.
5.1 NEW IRELAND REGION, P.N.G.
5.1 MID-INDIAN RIDGE
5.0 VANUATU
5.1 NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G.
Yesterday -
9/2/10 -
5.1 ANDAMAN ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
5.0 NORTHERN PERU
TROPICAL STORMS -
-Tropical depression 10E was 191 nmi S of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
-Hurricane EARL was 96 nmi ESE of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
-Tropical storm FIONA was 273 nmi SSW of Hamilton, Bermuda.
-Tropical depression GASTON was 1208 nmi E of Bridgetown, Barbados.
-Tropical storm KOMPASU was 298 nmi NE of Seoul, Korea.
-Tropical storm MALOU was 241 nmi SE of Kadena AB, Okinawa.
Hurricane Earl swipes US east, but no big hit - Hurricane Earl slapped North Carolina's coast with rain, winds and heavy surf on Friday and swirled up the US eastern seaboard toward New England and Canada as a weakened Category 2 but still potent storm.
HEAVY RAINS, SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES -
AUSTRALIA - THE BIGGEST STORM IN 15 YEARS is expected to hit Victoria tomorrow. Emergency services are braced for chaos.
There have been reports of a sinkhole opening up and a woman has been struck by lightning and as storms hit South Australia's Eyre Peninsula and Gawler region this morning. Thunderstorms and torrential rain have caused flooding on Eyre Peninsula and in Gawler. Kimba has received 40mm of rain since 9am and there are reports Kimba Area School, a road house and up to six houses in the town have been flooded. The State Emergency Service reports local roads in the area are impassable because of flooding. Heavy rain may also be responsible for a "sink hole" developing in the car park of the Coles Supermarket at Port Lincoln. Gawler has been hit by more than 24mm of rain since 9am this morning.
EXTREME HEAT / WILDFIRES / DROUGHT / CLIMATE CHANGE -
RUSSIA - Five people died in southern Russia after new forest fires broke out.
