Bacteria @ 41km

Makarand writes " According to this article in The Times of India, air samples collected using balloon-borne cryosamplers at altitudes of around 25 miles contained bacteria that are believed extra terrestrial. This was revealed recently by legendary Indian astrophysicist Jayant Narlikar, who supervised the experiments last year. The article throws light on the brilliant Indian efforts to find if there is anyone out there. Here is an older article announcing the launch of this project. "

Comments

sounds dubious

[tps12]

If I collected stuff with a balloon, I'd probably hold off on assuming its extra-terrestriality. Unless it's some kind of super space balloon, but I don't think we have those yet.

And what's with the repeated mention of the guy's Indian-ness? Can we try to keep the nationalism out of Science, please? (Oh, wait, I guess that would be "multiculturalism," since he's swarthy.) And what's with calling him "legendary?" That sounds almost like WWF (or whatever it's called these days).

In any case, this sounds like only so much limelight-grabbing. I'm placing my bet now on peer review punching a hole in this guy's metaphorical balloon.

Re:sounds dubious

[The Cydonian]

And what's with the repeated mention of the guy's Indian-ness? Can we try to keep the nationalism out of Science, please?

Personally, I think it's a response to the general anti-Indian bashing that Indians apparently face on most international newsgroups. Add the fact that India is only now coming out of its socialist hibernation and you have a perfect situation for some oh-I'm-so-Indian chest beating. (Disclaimer:That's not a troll. I might have something in common with Indians.)

But you're right; I agree that's a tad too gooey. Science is beyond nationalism and even (presumed) patriotism.

As for the experiment, I've read about this before. Andromeda Strain anyone? :-D

Re:sounds dubious

[stefanlasiewski]

Personally, I think it's a response to the general anti-Indian bashing that Indians apparently face on most international newsgroups. Add the fact that India is only now coming out of its socialist hibernation and you have a perfect situation for some oh-I'm-so-Indian chest beating.

True, but this article only gives more ammunition to the anti-Indian bashers. I wouldn't want to be associated with this guy:

a) He's not the first person to make this claim about extraterrestrial microbes.

b) This isn't good science. What, he sticks a balloon above some theoretical "barrier" in the atmosphere, finds some microbes, and then claims they MUST be extraterrestrial? That's a silly claim.

No explanation != Amazing Discovery

[helix400]

Here is the text of the article explaining what was found:

The probes sucked air at four different heights. Some bacteria were found in the air samples. These were not common contaminants.

Nor had they been used in the laboratory where the test was held. Moreover, no such growth was found on control membranes.
(End of Document)

Now how in the world does this mean its extraterrestial?

-----
Abortions for some...miniature American flags for others! - Kodos

DNA?

[BCGlorfindel]

I wonder, does this "extraterrestrial" life have DNA in it? If it does shouldn't that raise a few questions? Like perhaps contamination from terrestrial sources? Attention grabbing headlines like this are rather unscientific if they are so premature as to not even do basic tests.

Re:DNA?

[Sir Holo]

I wonder, does this "extraterrestrial" life have DNA in it? If it does shouldn't that raise a few questions? Like perhaps contamination from terrestrial sources? Attention grabbing headlines like this are rather unscientific if they are so premature as to not even do basic tests.

Of course it raises questions. These issues are probably being investigated. Scientists cannot wait until they "know everything" because we will never know everything. Note that this is something he said during a presentation. Scientists often conversationally give a glimpse of recent results, especially if they might spark interest. It's not premature at all.

Note also that this is a newspaper article, not a scientific article, thus all of the attention-grabbing language. The article's author was only reporting on one bit of a presentation. What probably happened in this case (and generally in cases where the press blows something out of proportion, though they didn't do it here) was that he said something like this: "We took great precautions to avoid contamination. The results imply that the bacteria were extraterrestrial. Studies of these bacteria will yield more information." And so on.

Be sure that you consider the source before making quick judgements. And remember that newspaper article reports of new scientific issues are often written by people who don't understand the topic. Due to space limitations, they never give you all of the details, and often get those that they include wrong. i.e. Grain of salt.

Extraordinary claims...

[stefanlasiewski]

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

Which is more likely: That bacteria from Earth managed to travel 41km into the sky sometime in the last 4.5 billion years, and then survived in that environment; or that bacteria travelled millions-trillions of miles through space from some other system and just happened to find Earths atmosphere?

Hey, I like the "intergalactic spores" theory as much as anybody, but I think this scientist is ignoring the obvious.

Bacteria already found in clouds

[TheLink]

There's already plenty of existing evidence of bacteria in clouds, why do they think it's extraterrestial?

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=U TF -8&q=bacteria+clouds

Makes me wonder why the astrophysicist is called legendary.