Mysterious red cells might be aliens

CNN ^ | June 2, 2006 | Jebediah Reed

[RWR8189]

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.

[dangerdoc]

alien bump

[null and void]

Yeah. A very subtle, quiet, claustrophobic, and terrifyingly plausible story.

I can think of no way to render it to the silver screen that would do it justice.

[Quix]

Hmmmmm

I suppose some such could be an interesting problem.

I suppose that means one should be very careful of the water there?

[From many - one.]

OK, gotta ask.

Either of you remember an article in the old Astounding about the year 2011 and a poulation crash at the same time humans are able to become immortal?

No, I'm not trying to hijack the thread.

[null and void]

Nope. Missed that one.

Besides shouldn't that be 2012?

[NicknamedBob]

Those who write exclusively for the silver screen do not realize the extent to which they hobble themselves. Cambell grew up in a time when literary description was the only way to display colossal imagery.

Stan Freeburg made a similar point when he used sound effects to drain Lake Superior and fill it with a giant scoop of ice cream.

We now live in a time when computers have permitted us to bring to reality incredibly detailed images of the formerly unimaginable, but all the rich tapestry that has been woven by our Golden Age Science Fiction writers goes undisturbed -- while the most god-awful dreck gets turned into hideous computer generated movies for our short-attention-span youth.

[P8riot]

Here's an enlargement

[NicknamedBob]

I've never read anything like that, but most of my reading was confined to Analog and pulp novels.

I haven't subscribed lately. I get my fix by writing the stuff instead.

[P8riot]

Maybe they're Midi-chlorians.

[Interesting Times]

Great minds...

[null and void]

Uhhhhh, Astounding became Analog.

(Before my time too)...

[1955Ford]

I really want this to be true. It could be the greatest discovery of all time.

But, the fact that he sent a sample to Dr.Wickramasinghe indicates it's a scam. Wickramasinghe is basically a nut who will accept any evidence of life in outer space. Why didn't he send the sample to a respected scientist?

[NicknamedBob]

I started reading Analog when it was in the large format. Shortly afterward, it was reduced to the more familiar size.

I believe my first copy had the story, "The Mailman Goeth" with the impressive snippet of dialogue "devastating excellence of vocabulary!"

[Flavius]

this would be the third time around this story went through world press

[NicknamedBob]

So the only way it's going anywhere is if it gets highjacked.

I was thinking ... Godfrey ... Godfrey Cambridge ... Watermelon Man ... tiny little red things ... watermelon stuff?

I need to look up Art Bell's phone number...

[null and void]

Who goes there?

[LibWhacker]

[Thinkin' Gal]

"We see them budding, with little daughter cells inside the big cells."

Killer Yeast from Outer Space ping.

[Renderofveils]

The hills are alive with the sound of mucus?

[From many - one.]

Could be...but 2011 is how I remember it.