Slashdot Mirror


Raining Extraterrestrial Microbes in Kerala?

jdfox writes "World Science is reporting on a controversial paper to be published shortly in the peer-reviewed research journal Astrophysics and Space Science, describing a strange red rain that fell in India in 2001, shortly after a meteor airburst event in the area. The authors posit that the red particles found in the raindrops may be extraterrestrial microbes. The authors' last two papers on the subject were unpublished: this published paper is more cautious. The paper can be viewed online, and should obviously be considered in context. More info on the 'panspermia' hypothesis can be found at Wikipedia."

255 comments

  1. Great. Space herpes. by Unknown+Poltroon · · Score: 5, Funny

    Just what we needed.

    --
    All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.
  2. Oh That Intelligent Designer... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Spreading his Glorious seed.

    Case closed! Who wants lunch?

    1. Re:Oh That Intelligent Designer... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Come on, people. That's funny.

    2. Re:Oh That Intelligent Designer... by Forbman · · Score: 1

      I saw somewhere online reports that people have seen curious fuzzy worm-like creatures while out hiking. Curious, in that they are 10' long and periodically chirp like cats do sometimes, a kind of "chtrrrr" sound. Farmers in Eastern Oregon are reporting grisly remains from attacks on range livestock, but they cannot be explained by typical carnivore eating patterns. The state dept of agricultre and Idaho game & wildlife officials are pretty sure that Yellowstone wolves have not made it this far yet.

      Yeah, I do like the "Chtorr" series by David Gerrold...

  3. Pern? by IdolizingStewie · · Score: 4, Funny

    At least it's not Thread.

    1. Re:Pern? by wtansill · · Score: 1

      Ah! An Anne Mcaffrey (sp?) afficianado!

      --
      The contest for ages has been to rescue liberty from the grasp of executive power. -- Daniel Webster
  4. sing along~ by dartarrow · · Score: 2, Funny

    it's raining spacemen, Alleluia it's raining spacemen! Ramen!

    --
    I love humanity, it is people I hate
    1. Re:sing along~ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      for the first time in history...

    2. Re:sing along~ by Lectrik · · Score: 1

      Well, obviously the mystery red material is simply a gift of Marinara from the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
      Praise his great noodly appendage!
      Ramen

      --
      --- As to make my comment seem, by comparison, more intelegent... doodie doodie doodie poop poop poop!
  5. First ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Contact!

    1. Re:First ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I for one welcome our new red microbe overlords...

    2. Re:First ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Great. Our first contact with the Great Beyond is Space Spunk.

      Wonder what Jodie Foster would make of that one?

    3. Re:First ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny
      Great. Our first contact with the Great Beyond is Space Spunk. Wonder what Jodie Foster would make of that one?

      A great target.

  6. Venus by TheBlairMan · · Score: 5, Funny

    It was just Venus' time of the month, and it made it's way through space to reach us here.

    1. Re:Venus by Wandering+Wombat · · Score: 1

      Ewwwwww.....

      --
      I like to place meaningful quotes in my sig, so people will know that I know what meaningful quotes are.
    2. Re:Venus by 21st+Century+Peon · · Score: 1

      Insert "Great Red Spot" jokes here...
      (Yes, I know it's the wrong planet, but I don't know my Venusian meteorology as well as I should.)

      --
      "Knowledge, sir, should be free to all!"
      ~Harcourt Fenton Mudd
    3. Re:Venus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      > Yes, I know it's the wrong planet, but I don't know my Venusian meteorology as well as I should

      Let me introduce you to Venus:

      • The temperature is so high it would melt lead
      • The pressure is so high it would kill a man instantly
      • The atmosphere is contains vapours of boiled battery acid

      ... and this, my friend, is the symbol of the woman

    4. Re:Venus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How did those venus probes make it down into the atmosphere? Were they coated with uberunobtanium, or what?

    5. Re:Venus by Gabrill · · Score: 1

      If I recall, they lasted just long enough to say they touched Venesian dirt, as opposed to 2 years running on Mars.

      --
      Always going forward, 'cause we can't find reverse.
    6. Re:Venus by duffahtolla · · Score: 1
      Parachute mostly. They don't last long.

      venus probes

  7. Red particles... by mhore · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I skimmed over his paper briefly... looking at the images of the red cells and all of that. I noticed that in a few pictures, the cells resemble red blood cells. Perhaps the meteor smashed into a flock of birds? Hah.

    Mike.

    --

    Mmmm......sacrelicious.

    1. Re:Red particles... by Basehart · · Score: 2, Funny

      "Perhaps the meteor smashed into a flock of birds?"

      Didn't this happen back in the 80's?

      Oh wait, that was a flock of seagulls.

      (OK, I'm sorry already, jeez)

    2. Re:Red particles... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I doubt so. The paper indicates that the red rain was spread over 100 KM and their sampling indicate 50,000 kg of particles.

    3. Re:Red particles... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      "I skimmed over his paper briefly..."

      your skimming must have been really brief since you missed the abstract. From the abstract:

      "Strangely, a test for DNA using Ethidium Bromide dye fluorescence technique indicates absence of DNA in these cells."

      But since they know so little about these particles, I wonder how do they know if these "cell walls" are permeable to EthBr?

      Also, not sure whether you also read the headline, but they didn't find a comet, they collect rain water over a period of days.

    4. Re:Red particles... by onco_p53 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Interesting idea, but when you prepare SEM samples, they often shrivel up a bit.

      They are about the right size though, these particles range in size from 4 to 10 m. And human RBCs are about 6-8 m. It would explain the lack of a nucleus and DNA too.

      But the TEM images are all wrong (thick "cell wall"), and the low Iron and high silicon content makes it very suspect too.

      Spock's blood?

      But seriously I hope they send some of these things over to other labs for investigation (like mine!) I would start with universal primers, PCR can amplify the tiniest amount of DNA, all they did was dunk the `cells' in Edithium bromide.

    5. Re:Red particles... by tsa · · Score: 1

      Hehe, that was funny.

      But I wonder: you often see cloud formation when a sonic boom is about to occur. Could it be that there was something in the air already that rained down from these clouds? Something that didn't come from the alleged meteor?

      --

      -- Cheers!

    6. Re:Red particles... by clambake · · Score: 1

      But seriously I hope they send some of these things over to other labs for investigation (like mine!) I would start with universal primers, PCR can amplify the tiniest amount of DNA, all they did was dunk the `cells' in Edithium bromide.

      In the interst of science they took the remaining samples and finally subjected them to a 4 million degree inferno created in a supercollider, just to see what would happen.

    7. Re:Red particles... by onco_p53 · · Score: 1
      these particles range in size from 4 to 10 m. And human RBCs are about 6-8 m.


      OK so that was micrometres not metres, I guess slash does not like unicode mu symbols.
    8. Re:Red particles... by Angry+Toad · · Score: 2, Informative

      I would start with universal primers, PCR can amplify the tiniest amount of DNA, all they did was dunk the `cells' in Edithium bromide.

      I call shenanigans on their methodology. All they did was manually grind up the cells - once with a mortar and pestel, once with the same under liquid nitrogen. That **does not** ensure any breakage of many kinds of protist cells.

      We do this kind of stuff in my lab. We frequently have to use a French Press with monstrously high pressures to get many single-celled eukaryotes to break open.

      Looks like some kind of red algae to me.

    9. Re:Red particles... by Oldsmobile · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I read the article. Very intersting, kinda creepy.

      But I don't like the way he (?) leaves other explanations out:

      "Above arguments and facts indicate that it is difficult to explain
      the red rain phenomenon by using usual arguments like dust storms etc."


      A thorough study of other possibilites would have led more credit to his pet theory. I don't think it is a good idea to use "etc." in a scientific paper. I am not saying that the "above arguments" mentioned in the quote are not valid, but he sure does not dwell on them very long.

      --
      Some say he is made with ascii, others that he is eyeballed daily by millions. All we know is, he is known as the Sig
    10. Re:Red particles... by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      IIRC (from my days when I ran an EM), bird RBS are NOT eunucleated and do not have the same appearence.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    11. Re:Red particles... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      In addition to the thick cellwall there is another fact that sets these particles apart from [at least] human RBCs. According to the article, the particles showed minimal decay over a period of 4 years being stored at room temperature in the rainwater without an preservatives. human RBCs have an average lifespan of about 120 days.

    12. Re:Red particles... by thegarbageman · · Score: 1

      But since they know so little about these particles, I wonder how do they know if these "cell walls" are permeable to EthBr?

      They pulverized the "cells" before testing.

      --
      "I propose we leave math to the machines and go play outside." - Calvin
  8. Contradicts Intelligence by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Seems this theory has gained some flack from the Intelligent Design community.

    http://www.ideacenter.org/contentmgr/showdetails.p hp/id/849

    1. Re:Contradicts Intelligence by quokkapox · · Score: 4, Insightful
      The text at the link provided asserts that When it comes to religious questions, the IDEA Center's staff and founders believe that compelling evidence shows that the universe was as a whole designed by a "superintellect" that was not natural.

      They aren't interested in understanding nature. They're just trying to redefine science.

      There are a thousand ways to collaborate scientifically using the Internet. Intelligent Design propenents need to immediately begin describing their ideas more concisely and subjecting them to peer review and public criticism. Without these, their wild speculation will remain subject to extreme ridicule among the educated and their movement will continue to be shunned and exposed as a political and anti-intellectual project, standing for everything science is not.

      The continued silence from ID is not an encouraging sign for their "theory". But there is no shortage of new research that tests, supports, and expands upon the existing evolutionary framework. Evolutionary biology is the only theory which is making real progress with understanding nature.

      --
      it's a blue bright blue Saturday hey hey
    2. Re: Contradicts Intelligence by Black+Parrot · · Score: 1

      > > When it comes to religious questions, the IDEA Center's staff and founders believe that compelling evidence shows that the universe was as a whole designed by a "superintellect" that was not natural.

      > They aren't interested in understanding nature. They're just trying to redefine science.

      To let their preferred answer in.

      And the quoted text reveals that after the Dover spanking they're not bothering to pretend ID isn't religion anymore.

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    3. Re: Contradicts Intelligence by quokkapox · · Score: 1

      I'm not sure how closely the Discovery Institute associates itself with ideacenter.org, but a cursory review of ideacenter.org gives me the impression that it's mostly a bunch of garbage. ideacenter.org gives readers guidance on suggestions as not to how not to incur scoldings from Darwinists who may not use the "common" or "non-technical" definitions. of the word "theory". Oh my.

      --
      it's a blue bright blue Saturday hey hey
    4. Re:Contradicts Intelligence by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      ?? The ID people understand the universe perfectly!

      Their is a mountain of scientific evidence that supports ID, and very little scientific evidence to support science. The evidence cleary shows that god created earth, and everyone on it in less then a week. It also shows that everyone on this planet is related (and thus comiting sin every time they have sex), that god likes incest (he created eve from adam, so technecally, eve is adams daughter), and that god is so evil he will kill you, and your family if you dont pray to him. Furthermore, rain is really god pissing, and the universe is held together by evil religous terrorists called vaticinions. This particle in the universe is why the universe doesnt fall apart, and why scientist can never understand the universe. The vaticinion particles can only be seen by true believers.

      Luckely for all of us, this god seems to have died out a few thousand years ago, proving that god really was just a alien, and that the religions his race spawned are evil fanatics for their evil army of galatic war, rape, and piliging.

    5. Re:Contradicts Intelligence by Kizor · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yes, I see why we should draw intelligent designers into this so we can ridicule them again, even though ID has nothing to do with this subject and we're all sick of it anyway.

    6. Re:Contradicts Intelligence by Oligonicella · · Score: 1

      "Intelligent Design propenents need to immediately begin describing their ideas more concisely and subjecting them to peer review and public criticism."

      Were you serious? They won't because they can't. The reason being, the "intelligence" cannot under any circumstances be described because that would let open an avenue of coherent attack against their incoherent idea.

      The "continued silence" is, in fact, their entire "theory".

    7. Re:Contradicts Intelligence by Jugalator · · Score: 1

      Hehe, that's pretty funny... They say this, about extra-terrestrial "design":

      If one accepts that life on earth was designed, the problem with this theory is that although it might explain the design of life on earth, it cannot explain the design of extra-terrestrial components of the universe which are crucial to our existence. As noted in our Anthropic Principles page, there appears to be a design of the universe, going all the way back to a creation event implicated in the Big Bang theory. The extreme "fine-tuning" of the universe must be explained, along with the design of life on earth.

      So they're putting a lot of pressure on proof that this must be true before accepting it, yet they seem to have an easier time accepting there's a supernatural designer of the entire Universe, a "God". Hmm, I think I'll never understand these guys.

      Not sure of what fine tuning they're talking about either; if the post-Big Bang Universe wasn't fine tuned for us, none of us would be here, so the only way to be here today is if the fine tuning was correct, and that can be just as likely by coincidence as by other forces to me. A God is definitely not more believable to me than a one in a trillion chance the "fine tuning" got "Just Right" for us to exist one day through celestial and terrestrial evolution, simply because a God creating stuff for us is extremely illogical on its own.

      --
      Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
    8. Re:Contradicts Intelligence by dbIII · · Score: 1
      They aren't interested in understanding nature. They're just trying to redefine science.
      It's not just science, they want to redefine Christianity into a simplistic thing that looks suspiciously like a death cult. Once God is responsible for absolutely everything you find details that turn God into a devil or some sort of vengeful weather spirit that kills children in floods.

      Some of the same bunch cancelled Christmas services last year and gave people DVDs to take home instead. It just makes me shake my head and continue to be agnostic in a country which was excommunitated in total by an angry Oral Roberts at Sydney airport - apparently Mr Roberts has a God that behaves and does what it's told.

    9. Re:Contradicts Intelligence by statusbar · · Score: 1

      The great thing about the I.D. argument is that we can now put blame on this 'intelligence' for the screw-ups. Like the poor design of human's knees. Seems this 'intelligence' is not so intelligent after all

      jeff

      --
      ipv6 is my vpn
    10. Re:Contradicts Intelligence by Geoffreyerffoeg · · Score: 1

      Intelligent Design propenents need to immediately begin describing their ideas more concisely and subjecting them to peer review and public criticism.

      If only there were a way to. We're not supposed to accept religious doctrines on proof, but on faith. (Faith != a superior telling you what to believe. If the Holy Spirit exists in the form you believe it to, it will convince you that you're believing in the right thing.)

      However, it's been equally established that the doctrines are provable (just that you can't use that as the basis of your belief). As Jesus said to doubting Thomas, "You believe because you have seen, but blessed are those who believe who have not seen." He didn't say that it was impossible to believe after seeing the proof - but that it's better to have faith.

      The ID camp should certainly submit their theses to the scientific community, once they figure out some way so that it both fits the scientific method and that they're only testing a hypothesis - not coming up with new theories. There's nothing directly anti-scientific with this - experiments e.g. those used to prove relativity were designed only to test it, not to come up with a new empirical correlation and see if it fits relativity later. It just takes a lot of effort to phrase it in the right way, so you're satisfying both the religious wish (although proof may exist, believe on faith as the Spirit guides you) and the scientific wish (everything must be provable or disprovable, and we must subject evidence to all tests). If they look like they're forcing their results to fit ID, science won't like it. And if they look like they're deriving some theory that could be ID but also couldn't be, the Church won't like it.

      I personally believe, on faith alone, that God did create the heavens and the earth, but that Genesis isn't to be taken literally (if the solar system wasn't created, how is a "day" supposed to mean 24 hours?). However, from all the evidence and moreover theory behind natural selection, I don't see why it shouldn't work.

    11. Re:Contradicts Intelligence by aminorex · · Score: 1

      I take it that you have never read "Darwin's Black Box" by Michael Behe.

      --
      -I like my women like I like my tea: green-
    12. Re:Contradicts Intelligence by duffahtolla · · Score: 1
      If they look like they're forcing their results to fit ID, science won't like it. And if they look like they're deriving some theory that could be ID but also couldn't be, the Church won't like it.

      Which Church? The Vatican seems to be leaning away from ID.

      "Today, nearly half a century after appearance of the encyclical, fresh knowledge leads to recognition of the theory of evolution as more than just a hypothesis." -- Pope John Paul II, 1996

      "'Intelligent Design' isn't science and doesn't belong in science classrooms" -- Rev. George Coyne, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, 2005

      "A hypothesis asks whether something is true or false.. (Evolution) is more than a hypothesis because there is proof." -- Monsignor Gianfranco Basti, director of the Vatican project STOQ, 2005

      "The faithful have the obligation to listen to that which secular modern science has to offer, just as we ask that knowledge of the faith be taken in consideration as an expert voice in humanity" -- Cardinal Paul Poupard, the Pontifical Council for Culture, 2005

      But then there is the current Pope.

      "These people, fooled by atheism, believe and try to demonstrate that it's scientific to think that everything is free of direction and order.." -- Pope Benedict XVI, 2005

    13. Re:Contradicts Intelligence by Eli+Gottlieb · · Score: 1

      Wrong. Evolutionary biology is the only theory making any progress towards understanding nature that: 1.Predicts immutable and universal behaviors and laws, 2.Does so with the assumption that all phenonmena are either probabalistic or deterministic.

      However, those two ideas tend not to be proven wrong.

  9. I for one .... by qwave54 · · Score: 2, Funny

    welcome our new red extraterrestrial microbe overlords!

    Ah well ......

    1. Re:I for one .... by zuluechopapa · · Score: 1

      Perhaps Prince is the modern day Nostradomus. Only his specs were tinted deep blue, turning the red rain purple?

      --
      even the magic 8 ball has an opinion on email clients: Outlook not so good.
  10. Interesting conclusion... by Inaffect · · Score: 2, Interesting
    "The present study of red rain phenomenon in Kerala shows that the particles, which caused the red colouration of the red rain, are not possibly terrestrial in origin. It appears that these particles may have originated from the atmospheric disintegration of cometary meteor fragmants, which are presumably containing dense collections of red rain particles. These particles have much similarity with biological cells though they are devoid of DNA. Are these cell particles a kind of alternate life from space? If the red rain particles are biological cells and are of cometary origin, then this phenomena can be a case of panspermia where comets can breed microorgranisms in their radiogenically heated interiors and can act as vehicles for spreading life in the universe."
    1. Re:Interesting conclusion... by ultranova · · Score: 1

      There's a teeny wittle woblem with panspermia. Remember the Shoemaker comet, the one that crashed into Jupiter ? Remember the resulting explosions that were visible from Earth ? If Shoemaker was carrying microbes, those microbes were in the middle of the explosion. See the problem ?

      --

      Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

    2. Re:Interesting conclusion... by silverkniveshotmail. · · Score: 1

      It's a good thing that comets don't leave trails and that all things entering the atmosphere either explode into nothingness or disolve.

    3. Re:Interesting conclusion... by Max+von+H. · · Score: 1

      Not *all* comets were manufactured by Ford in the early 80's, you know...

      --
      -- It's always darker before it goes pitch black.
    4. Re:Interesting conclusion... by Decaff · · Score: 1

      If the red rain particles are biological cells and are of cometary origin, then this phenomena can be a case of panspermia where comets can breed microorgranisms in their radiogenically heated interiors and can act as vehicles for spreading life in the universe.

      The problems with this idea are many. The first is that there is no evidence that life on Earth has more than one origin - all life here is based on the same chemicals and same genetic code. If panspermia was true we might expect more variety. The second problem is that although comets have have been heated by radioactive decay around the time of the origin of the solar system, this heating would not have lasted long. It is unlikely that life could have survived frozen for billions of years.

    5. Re:Interesting conclusion... by ultranova · · Score: 1

      It's a good thing that comets don't leave trails

      They do, but I fail to see how that is relevant, since the particles that make up the trail will fall just as fast as the main comet in a gravity well. If anything, getting down alive in a comet trail particle is harder than getting down inside the comet, since you won't have any kind of protection from the heat generated by the windblast and/or the impact.

      and that all things entering the atmosphere either explode into nothingness or disolve.

      Those things that don't get vaporized tend to survive because they are solid stone. Perhaps you might explain how a micro-organism gets inside solid stone ? Remember, no cracks are allowed, since they would allow heat to enter too.

      Oh, and of course the microbe must get out of the stone too in order to contaminate the planet it landed on. I suppose it is possible that the microbe might just go dormant until the stone is worn down by erosion, which is likely to take a while since the stone is not only helluva though to survive the impact, but it also gets put into a hole (impact crater) and buried soon if not right away.

      Of course the lifeform in question has better chances of surviving all this than might be assumed; after all, it was though enough to survive the meteor strike, volcano explosion, or whatever the heck it was that threw it into space in the first place, and coated it with rock as well. Unless, of course, it began its life in space, in which case it will have the fun task of trying to survive in high-pressure poisonous (to it) gas or liquid once its stone shell gets broken.

      --

      Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

    6. Re:Interesting conclusion... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      TFA addresses both of those - it theorizes that this life is common in interstellar space, and is all fairly similar. Also, it argues that as spore-like forms, they could survive extremely long periods of cold, as they have no metabolic function.

      Huh. I'll believe it when it's independently corroborated, with footage of dividing cells.

    7. Re:Interesting conclusion... by Decaff · · Score: 1

      TFA addresses both of those - it theorizes that this life is common in interstellar space, and is all fairly similar

      There is no justification for this - why should it be similar? Remember we are talking about not 'fairly similar' life on Earth, but virtually the same genetic systems for all life.

      Also, it argues that as spore-like forms, they could survive extremely long periods of cold, as they have no metabolic function.

      This doesn't matter, as they would still be subject to serious radiation damage over the long periods of time we are talking about. Many bacteria can survive intense radiation, but they need an active metabolism for repair systems to function.

  11. Salman Rushdies new book by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "And Jehovah Jizzed" is sure to become and instant classic.

  12. You should read this one by ookabooka · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I strongly suggest looking through this article (Yes, I know this is Slashdot, how could I suggest such a thing) as I found the summary made me extremely skeptical. If the information is not falsified, I would say it is certainly worth investigating, even with a hefty grain of salt. . . or would that be grains? . . .anyway I digress. I found the electron microscope pictures quite intriguing, it certainly "looked" like a cell, though I understand this sort of observation is hardly irrefutable. I did not see any evidence of the particles replicating which would suggest life (they could replicate and still not be considered "life" ofcourse). I believe a good analog would be the potential bacteria found in a Martian meteor.

    --
    If you are about to mod me down, keep in mind that this post was most likely sarcastic.
    1. Re:You should read this one by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      agreed - big claims require big evidence, and in this case the micro-analysis is extremely poor, to the point of being worthless. For a start, why did they use an arbritrary accelerating voltage of 9.7KeV? Its too low to excite significant Fe X-rays, hence the Fe peak is small....were the samples coated (and they must have been)..if so, theres the carbon contribution....why was this analysis not done on the TEM? The fact the researchers used a tradename as the name of the anayltical technique gives the game away somewhat, but fully quant ED analysis on very small poorly prepeared samples is really not very clever. It should have been rejected until better analysis was available.

  13. Nonsense by quantaman · · Score: 4, Funny

    This human researcher is clearly incorrect.

    The red particles that landed in sector omega-3 were obviously not a virus know as MindGobblers designed to manipulate the portions of your puny brains involved with sensory reception effectivly allow us to transform you into a slave race.

    I suggest you fellow humans all make bad jokes about human researcher and realize his findings are not true.

    --
    I stole this Sig
  14. Iron Oxide Chrondules by ozmanjusri · · Score: 2, Insightful

    From the paper: "Under low magnification the particles look like smooth, red coloured glass beads. Under high magnifications (1000x) their differences in size and shape can be seen,"

    These are iron oxide chrondules from the vaporisation of a nickel-iron meteorite. There's no need to invoke aliens or intelligent designers.

    --
    "I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
    1. Re:Iron Oxide Chrondules by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Not flaming you or anything (I skimmed the paper myself, and the quality of it is shoddy at best - just check out the references), but Google isn't turning up anything on "chrondules" - enlighten us? The paper jumps to outrageous conclusions, and makes the claim that they are "cell-like" with fine membranes but doesn't bother analyze membrane composition!

    2. Re:Iron Oxide Chrondules by belmolis · · Score: 1

      OP made a typo. Try googling: chondrules.

    3. Re:Iron Oxide Chrondules by barakn · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Iron oxide chondrules with carbon as the main ingredient? I don't think so... did you see the elemental analyses?

      --
      "I'm so moist I'm sticking to the leather." -Kermit the Frog on The Late Late Show
    4. Re:Iron Oxide Chrondules by krel · · Score: 2, Interesting

      If you read the second paper, you'll see the cells are clearly alive. The only question is whether they came from space.

      --
      karma: ouch!
    5. Re:Iron Oxide Chrondules by khayman80 · · Score: 1
      These are iron oxide chrondules from the vaporisation of a nickel-iron meteorite. There's no need to invoke aliens or intelligent designers.

      They do look like iron oxide chondrules, but look at table 1. Iron only makes up 1% of the substance by weight. The main elements present are carbon and oxygen.

      Also, as someone else pointed out, their other two papers make it more clear that the "glass beads" are alive. Of course, this didn't make it into the peer reviewed paper so I'm treating it with a little more skepticism than usual.

    6. Re:Iron Oxide Chrondules by durandal61 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Unless they botched their elemental composition analysis, they appear to be mostly carbon and oxygen. Page 9 of the latest preprint (pardon the formatting):

      Element Wt % Atomic % Standards
      C 49.53 57.83 CaCO3
      O 45.42 39.82 Quartz
      Na 0.69 0.42 Albite
      Al 0.41 0.21 Al2O3
      Si 2.85 1.42 Quartz
      Cl 0.12 0.05 KCl
      Fe 0.97 0.24 Fe

      In any case, the first two preprint's language made me cringe. The whole "life-cycle" section.... [shudder]

      --
      My motorbike travels in Chile.
    7. Re:Iron Oxide Chrondules by gnasherspants · · Score: 1

      This kind of thing bugs me so much that I actually created a log-in just fro this....agreed - big claims require big evidence, and in this case the micro-analysis is extremely poor, to the point of being worthless. For a start, why did they use arbritrary accelerating voltage of 9.7KeV? Its too low to excite significant Fe X-rays, hence the Fe peak is small....were the samples coated (and they must have been)..if so, theres the carbon contribution...if they were gold coated, then the entire analysis is bunk.....why was this analysis not done on the TEM? The fact the researchers used a tradename as the name of the anayltical technique gives the game away somewhat, but fully quant ED analysis on very small poorly prepeared samples is really not very clever. It should have been rejected until better analysis was available. If there was other evidence to support their claims, then it should have been included. If that evidence has been rejected previoulsy, it strongly suggests desperation on the part of the researchers. This kind of shoddy use of standard analytical techniques by scientists is really symptomatic of either laziness or desperation to get published. Either way, its really not on.

    8. Re:Iron Oxide Chrondules by Angry+Toad · · Score: 1

      The whole paper is just embarassing. I haven't yet looked at the earlier preprints, but if this (ridiculous) version has been accepted I shudder to think what the others must have looked like.

        I don't believe anyone with any background in biological sciences was involved anywhere in the review process. If they were and they recommended acceptance then they should be banished to teaching grade 1 science for the rest of their lives.

    9. Re:Iron Oxide Chrondules by ozmanjusri · · Score: 2, Informative

      I don't think so... did you see the elemental analyses?

      Yes I did, but I don't believe it. I think they've messed up the analysis. SEMs are better suited to thin films than particulates, and the components listed in their analysis don't seem a good match for the physical characteristics of the particles.

      If there actually is a high proportion of carbon in the material, it's likely to be from an iron-rich calcium carbonate meteorite instead.

      --
      "I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
    10. Re:Iron Oxide Chrondules by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      You'd think carbon was rare or otherwise exceptional in meteorites. It isn't. It is abundant in carbonaceous chrondites. Some of them practically look like charcoal. But you're right, the analysis shows these things aren't mainly iron.

      I don't see anything clearly biological here, and even if there was, the connection to something extraterrestrial rather than terrestrial is tenuous. Don't get me wrong -- it's interesting, but A) there's already a long history of such hunts in ordinary meteorites, and B) that hunt has been pretty unsatisfying, with loads of examples of probable or demonstrated terrestrial contamination, and loads of examples of things that "look like" biological structures, but aren't upon more detailed examination.

      People are *way* too interested in seeing something exotic here rather than looking at all the possibilities, including ordinary mineralogical ones, and ordinary terrestrial ones. The authors have done a poor job of eliminating some of these others. Where is the extraordinary evidence for the extraordinary claims? I mean, that analysis is really poor in some ways. Using EDAX on an SEM rather than a dedicated microprobe is a poor way to do it for such small structures, and where's the X-ray diffraction in case there is anything crystalline here? Not even attempted.

      At least the DNA/RNA tests do look decent, because they included a positive test of the technique and were apparently thorough about breaking the structures up, but there is no guarantee there would be DNA or RNA present if there has been sufficient degradation (in either hypothesis!). What if these are highly degraded fungal spores? Their cell walls are extremely durable (they survive for geological eons). That hypothesis could explain the composition, the morphology, and the absence of DNA or RNA. Why didn't they test for the presence of typical fungal spore wall materials?

      Finally, I find the arguments regarding the connection to the supposed meteor airburst rather ridiculous. The evidence for the event itself is poor in the first place -- sonic boom? That's it? I'm sorry, I need a little more than that. How do we know there weren't supersonic military aircraft in the area the time, or that people were mistaking something else for a sonic boom? Worse, most of the arguments they use to dispute the possibility of a terrestrial source contributing to the location of the fallout for 2 months would also apply to a meteor. What, there aren't any high-altitude winds here? The plume just lingered for that long? Is there something about meteor plumes that allow them to linger but not the terrestrial possibilities? High-altitude volcanic ash can spread across a whole continent in just a few days!

      No, I think a regional terrestrial source is much more likely for whatever these things are, and they've done a poor job eliminating that possibility. Given all the weird stuff that sometimes gets sucked up into rainstorms and later found falling to the ground (e.g., frogs, fish), you've got to be skeptical, unless we're going to claim those could be extraterrestrial too.

    11. Re:Iron Oxide Chrondules by barakn · · Score: 1

      Don't presume to know what I think about carbon abundance in meteorites. The parent to my post suggested iron oxide chondrules. As we all know, chondrules, even if they are in carbonaceous chondrites, are glassy spheres of minerals such as olivine and pyroxene (silicates, although olivine can also contain iron). If these did come from a carbonaceous chondrite they have lost the dark carbon-bearing matrix they were embedded in. Mere mechanical grinding isn't enough to break up spores or pollen, and ethidium bromide is not a good test for RNA, only DNA. We can probably agree the analysis was bungled.

      --
      "I'm so moist I'm sticking to the leather." -Kermit the Frog on The Late Late Show
  15. Common occurance by Belseth · · Score: 4, Informative

    I've read about quite a few of these colored rain falls and most of them have an obvious terrestrial source. They usually are volcanic or caused by birds or insects. It's one thing for trace amounts of organic matter to survive reentry but large amounts are highly unlikely. Organic material would mostly be incinerated. A comet fragment would have a better chance with the ice protecting the organic matter. I doubt the paper will survive peer review.

    1. Re:Common occurance by Inaffect · · Score: 1

      Yet the paper suggests these are microorgranisms from the heated interior.. could it be possible that these things could be among the small amount that does survive re-entry? Quite clearly this is a rare event.. hasn't rained red around here lately.

    2. Re:Common occurance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I guess you didn't check out the link to the paper itself:

      "accepted for publication in Astrophysics and Space Science"

      this means it _has_ survived peer review, which only really just means that the researchers' methods and results are kosher, but does not imply that his conclusions are correct.

      I've read a lot of papers where the results are all good but the conclusions are completely off-base, but that's what conclusion is about, for people to speculate.

    3. Re:Common occurance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      that was exactly what I was thinking. It hasn't rained red around here... Regardless there are many meteors that fall in the area. It seems that their samples are all in india, but why isn't think phenomonon known throughout the world? And why don't they have data from other falls like this from other countries?

      Seems strange to me.

    4. Re:Common occurance by Max+Threshold · · Score: 1

      Generally only a thin layer on the surface of a meteor endures the extreme heat of reentry. Most of the heat is carried away through ablation of the surface material. And if it breaks up, the particles quickly slow to a speed at which atmospheric heating is not a factor.

    5. Re:Common occurance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      I doubt the paper will survive peer review.

      Agreed. The fact that it lists ufoindia.org as a reference doesn't help much, either.

    6. Re:Common occurance by Mr.+Flibble · · Score: 1

      Actually, all meteorites that land (hence the name) are actually cold due to ablation. While the meteor exterior gets quite hot, it begins to ablate, and lose mass due to friction. This keeps the temperature of the main mass nearly the same as it was in space, Very cold indeed. However, as another poster pointed out, the rain was likely red due to iron and not xenobacteria.

      --
      Try to hack my 31337 firewall!
    7. Re:Common occurance by SharpFang · · Score: 1

      Of course any -organic- (protein-based) material would be incinerated. Why are you so DNA-centric when it comes to extraterrestial life?

      --
      45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
    8. Re:Common occurance by Angry+Toad · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I've said this in other posts on this thread, but it bears repeating. Their methods are not kosher at all, and if anyone with any background in biological sciences, in particular with a background in the study of microorganisms, had been involved in the review process this paper would never have seen the light of day.

        The authors clearly have no understanding of biology beyone "it has DNA in it and is carbon-based". Their methods, in particular their "study" of the DNA content, are laughably off-base and reveal a total lack of understanding of how to handle microorganisms which have a thick cell wall.

          Trivial test - stain them for bloody cellulose! This is such an obvious damn thing to do that the only excuse for not doing it is (a) they don't know enough to try, or (b) they did and didn't like the results so they didn't mention them, which is probably more likely.

          This is a stupid paper.

  16. OMG! J-E-N-O-V-A! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We're dooooomed, doooooomed!

  17. Got Sample? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Got Sample?

    Didn't anyone think to get a sample of the strange rain? It's hard to imagine any doctor or chemist out there not taking a sample.

    1. Re:Got Sample? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dude, why don't you read the friggin paper... theres photos of em. They resemble cells but they have no dna.

  18. Quick, geeks by phorm · · Score: 2, Funny

    Look for the woman infected with an alien micro-organism that gives her the powerful urge to mate quickly in order to produce her world-dominating alien-human crossbid progeny. Of course, she'll probably kill you afterwards, but it's all the change some of you will get before you die anyhow!

    1. Re:Quick, geeks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'd hit it.

    2. Re:Quick, geeks by mOdQuArK! · · Score: 1

      Too bad she only goes for the healthy studs.
      The geeks still aren't cut any slack :-)

  19. Alien invasion by Rank_Tyro · · Score: 1

    If I am not mistaken, this is how the Chtorr gained a foot hold on the Earth.

    --
    Today's show is brought to you by the number 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0: 25
  20. Well, he SAID "Behold, I come quickly," after all by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    *nt*

  21. Good grief - more stuff sent to India by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Now even the aliens are sending microbe jobs to India! Where does it end? Not at the atmosphere, apparently. Somewhere in space, some alien GE executive overlord has gotten his or her bonus for the year. Oh well, the quality will suck, quality assurance will suck, they'll miss their deadline for taking over the planet, and the project will fail.

    I guess we're safe.

    1. Re:Good grief - more stuff sent to India by cHiphead · · Score: 1

      Its not that the quality will suck, its just that the language barrier will lead to miscommunications about the form and function of the giant walking alien mecha.

      --

      This is my sig. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
    2. Re:Good grief - more stuff sent to India by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The quality will be better than GM and Ford cars you americans make.

  22. i saw that movie by circletimessquare · · Score: 1
    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
    1. Re:i saw that movie by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's a shame. It was a hella shitty movie, but probably the greatest geek novel ever written.

      Sterling, Gibson, Vinge... laborious hacks, next to old-school Crichton. Straight up, yo.

    2. Re:i saw that movie by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bullshit. Crichton is only good at misrepresenting science, causing distrust of science, and generally making an embarrassment of the medical school that actually passed the dumbass.

      His SF sucks, and so does his knowledge of anything beyond high school science class.

    3. Re:i saw that movie by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Read the book, then get back to me on all that ranting.

      The Andromeda Strain is nothing even remotely like any of the other crap he's written.

    4. Re:i saw that movie by JustAnotherBob · · Score: 1

      All those Indians better start stocking up on Sterno... =)

  23. This could be more serious than we thought... by titzandkunt · · Score: 2, Funny


    I was going to post a longer comment, but two Marine officers have arrived at my house in an unmarked car. All they said was:

    "Dr Titzandkunt? There's been a fire."

    Gotta go!

    T&K.

    ...a clue for the clueless:clicky clicky

    --
    Political language ... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable...
  24. Re:Great. Space herpes. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This gives a new meaning to STD... Spatially Transmitted Diseases

  25. alien micro-organism by .de_domain · · Score: 1

    hi, alien micro-organism comes ervery days by cometfragments so i think in such a way also the life on earth developed

    best Regards
    domain

    1. Re:alien micro-organism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      very interesting Silvia

  26. If this is true, it is good news. by nihilistcanada · · Score: 1

    Think about it, if it truly rained alien microbes then this is great news for humanity. For one it proves life exists elsewhere. Plus it provides a rather simple solution to how we came to exist on this planet, without involving The Big Angry Dude in the Sky. Finally since we are not all dead, and for that matter exist at all, it shows that whatever out there is and has been taken into account by our immune system. Thus making instellar travel if it happens just that much safer.

    1. Re:If this is true, it is good news. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      WHAT?! No! How dare you challenge my legacy! Watcha gonna do?!?! When the 24 inch pythons and God destroy you! - The Big Angry Dude in The Sky (aka G0D)

    2. Re:If this is true, it is good news. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There is no reason that life developing on earth is any less plausable than life developing elsewhere and catching a lift in on an asteroid. It still needed to begin somewhere, some how (without bringing any religious arguements into the discussion).

    3. Re:If this is true, it is good news. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your whole poast is just dumb. (sorry, but it had to be said).

  27. Biblical stories about "raining blood"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This might provide an example of some historical basis for the stories in the Bible and other historical texts about "raining blood". Doesn't matter if it is alien life or something natural, its obviously rare enough that it doesn't happen normally. But if it happened once, it probably happened in the past, and people didn't have science and microscopes back then so if it looked like it was raining blood that's probably exactly what they thought was happening. Can't imagine anyone ever coming up with a positive explanation if they think blood is raining from the skies!!

  28. Elemnetal composition of the particles by S3D · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The /. editorial doesn't mention elemental composition of the particles. From TFA:
    45.4% quartz (!) 49.5% carbonate calcium
    Doesn't look like life or organic at all. Another case of wishful thinking.

    1. Re:Elemnetal composition of the particles by lordholm · · Score: 1

      It's clearly a fossilised life form based on both silicon and carbon.

      --
      "Civis Europaeus sum!"
    2. Re:Elemnetal composition of the particles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That was listed in the "standards" column next to the results, which probably just means they used pure samples of CaCO3 and quartz to calibrate their instruments.

    3. Re:Elemnetal composition of the particles by SharpFang · · Score: 1

      not organic - yes. not life - why?
      Take the protein blindfold off.

      --
      45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
    4. Re:Elemnetal composition of the particles by cygnus · · Score: 1

      protein blindfold? is it made out of tofu? sounds messy.

      --
      Just raise the taxes on crack.
  29. so we have discovered... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    interstellar rust...

    so what

  30. My $.02 by barakn · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The elemental analyses provided in the paper suggest a composition of of mostly carbohydrate with a smattering of something like a hydrocarbon. My guess is that they're some sort of pollen that had their DNA destroyed by ultraviolet light high in the atmosphere and then absorbed water and swelled. Nothing that couldn't have come from our own planet.

    --
    "I'm so moist I'm sticking to the leather." -Kermit the Frog on The Late Late Show
  31. Would have to be a bloody big bird by SmallFurryCreature · · Score: 2, Interesting
    The article claims that about 50.000kg fell down. Now that is a heck of a turkey even by US standards. (How 50.000kg becomes 55tons is anyones guess)

    Anyway you would expect other things, like hail of McNuggets in a meteroid vs bird incident.

    It is a weird incident in anycase. If it is a life form then the fact that so much of it fell down could this mean the entire meteroid was made of it?

    The previous theories suggested that small microbes might hide among the rocky part of the asteroid. Not the entire asteroid being made of it.

    Also why is this taking so long? India is a tech nation isn't it? In 4 years they should have been able to analyze this down the individual atoms.

    --

    MMO Quests are like orgasms:

    You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.

    1. Re:Would have to be a bloody big bird by Max+von+H. · · Score: 1
      (How 50.000kg becomes 55tons is anyones guess)


      50.000kg is, logically, 50 metric tons, but it's also 55 short tons (US measurement system) or 49.21 long tons (UK system).

      (How any educated writer could use anything but the metric system in a science-related article is anyone's guess) ;)

      Cheers,
      --
      -- It's always darker before it goes pitch black.
    2. Re:Would have to be a bloody big bird by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just one question...and pardon my american ignorance...but why the hell do you use periods and not commas?

    3. Re:Would have to be a bloody big bird by BiggerIsBetter · · Score: 1

      Because that's the way it's done in Europe.

      --
      Forget thrust, drag, lift and weight. Airplanes fly because of money.
    4. Re:Would have to be a bloody big bird by Max+von+H. · · Score: 2, Informative

      I just made a copy/paste from an online converter ;)

      Though, to correct your american ignorance, the thousands-separator varie between countries, as does the rest of the punctuation. In the USA you guys use commas, in the UK it's periods, in France just a space and in Switzerland it's " ' ", and that's just the ones I know.

      Thus, one million dollars and fifty cents would be spelled:

      In the USA: $1,000,000.50
      In the UK: $1.000.000,50
      In France: $1 000 000,50
      In Switzerland: $1'000'000.50

      Yup, it sometimes makes it a helluva confusing...

      --
      -- It's always darker before it goes pitch black.
    5. Re:Would have to be a bloody big bird by resonte · · Score: 1

      Correction:

      In the UK we use $1,000,000.50 as well, I believe in most other european countries they use the $1.000.000,50 system.

      --
      \(^o^)/
    6. Re:Would have to be a bloody big bird by FireFury03 · · Score: 1

      In the UK: $1.000.000,50

      Sorry, wrong - we use exactly the same system in the UK as the US does: £1,000,000.50

    7. Re:Would have to be a bloody big bird by Jherek+Carnelian · · Score: 1

      Sorry, wrong - we use exactly the same system in the UK as the US does: £1,000,000.50\

      Unfortunately you've got your own idea of billion/trillion so that just makes it worse.

    8. Re:Would have to be a bloody big bird by Max+von+H. · · Score: 1

      Woops.

      See, this thing's confusing me again.

      If only the whole planet could decide once and for all to use the same bloody units and notations, the world would surely be a better place...

      --
      -- It's always darker before it goes pitch black.
    9. Re:Would have to be a bloody big bird by FireFury03 · · Score: 1

      Unfortunately you've got your own idea of billion/trillion so that just makes it worse.

      Alternatively, maybe it's you who has your own idea of billion/trillion :)

      Being serious though, most people in the UK tend to use the US definitions of billion/trillion these days because it fits in better with the SI system - mega/giga/tera == million/billion/trillion

    10. Re:Would have to be a bloody big bird by empaler · · Score: 1

      Not in the proper parts of Europe.

    11. Re:Would have to be a bloody big bird by God'sDuck · · Score: 1

      If only the whole planet could decide once and for all to use the same bloody units and notations, the world would surely be a better place...

      you're totally like the MMLXVIIth person to suggest that, dude.

  32. you're being unscientific by penguin-collective · · Score: 1

    At this point, there is no particular reason to have a bias in favor of life evolving on this planet, in space, or on some other planet. Stubbornly clinging to the notion that life on earth must have evolved on earth is unscientific, as is equating panspermia with "aliens" or "intelligent designers".

    1. Re:you're being unscientific by eraserewind · · Score: 1

      The fact that life is on earth, and nowhere else we can see so far, seems like a reasonable reason to favour earth as our working assumption for the origin of earthly life.

      Sure there are other possibilities, but in the absence of evidence of life, let alone origins of life in other locations, those ideas must remain speculation at best.

    2. Re:you're being unscientific by CosmeticLobotamy · · Score: 1

      While it doesn't prove anything, Occam would probably tell you that life starting in a place friendly to tons of kinds of life is more likely than it germinating someplace more harsh and then traveling millions of miles to get here. Even given equally good life-starting conditions, life beginning anywhere but Earth and then moving to Earth is less likely than it just popping up here. So, until someone comes up with a reason life is much more likely to begin outside a big gravity-having object with an atmosphere and liquid water, there's reason to have some bias, just not certainty.

    3. Re:you're being unscientific by penguin-collective · · Score: 1

      The fact that life is on earth, and nowhere else we can see so far, seems like a reasonable reason to favour earth as our working assumption for the origin of earthly life.

      We had missed most of the biomass on earth itself until a decade ago, as well as huge branches of the phylogenetic tree.

      Given what we now know, many bodies in the solar system may contain life, including Mars, Europa, Callisto, Ceres, Venus, Jupiter, Charon, and even many comets. Given the conditions under which we now know life can exist, if rest of the solar system turned out to be completely sterile, that would be more suprising and difficult to explain than if it were full of bacterial life.

    4. Re:you're being unscientific by anagama · · Score: 1
      The fact that life is on earth, and nowhere else we can see so far, seems like a reasonable reason to favour earth as our working assumption for the origin of earthly life.
      Having thoroughly searched my shirt pocket and finding nothing but a piece of lint there, I can say conclusively that lint exists only in my shirt pocket.
      --
      What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
    5. Re:you're being unscientific by eraserewind · · Score: 1

      Well your analogy is all off, but anyway...

      Even though unlike life, we actually know pieces of lint exist in other shirt pockets, I think I can say with reasonable expectation of being correct that the lint in your shirt pocket originated from your laundry, and did not arrive there from someone elses. Of course it's possible it originated in someone elses, and arrived in your pocket as a part of a lint panspermia, but the balance of probability is that lint has started independantly many times in suitable environments, your pocket being one of them.

    6. Re:you're being unscientific by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Science only considers natural explainations, never supernatural explainations. When ID zealots claim that that ruling out supernatural explainations is "unscientific" they are raping the definition of science.

    7. Re:you're being unscientific by penguin-collective · · Score: 1

      While it doesn't prove anything, Occam would probably tell you that life starting in a place friendly to tons of kinds of life is more likely than it germinating someplace more harsh and then traveling millions of miles to get here.

      And where would that be? Most of the biomass on earth appears to be in rocks and ocean floors, thriving under conditions that likely exist in lots of other bodies in the solar system and that only 20 years ago, we would have considered hostile. It appears increasingly likely that that's where life actually started. And for organisms encased in rocks to travel between planets seems to be commonplace and easy; it would be amazing indeed if it didn't happen.

    8. Re:you're being unscientific by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Panspermia isn't a supernatural explanation, and it has nothing to do with ID. In fact, panspermia is fully compatible with evolution, it simply places the origin of life in a different location.

    9. Re:you're being unscientific by egomaniac · · Score: 1

      And for organisms encased in rocks to travel between planets seems to be commonplace and easy; it would be amazing indeed if it didn't happen.

      Then prepare to be amazed, because it's virtually certain that it didn't happen. The fact that all life on earth is based on the exact same biochemistry is itself enough to prove common descent -- i.e. that all life on earth descended from a single common ancestor.

      It's important to note that even if you assume that all life in the universe is "life as we know it" (DNA-based, citric acid cycle, and all that) we still know that all life on earth descended from a single ancestor, because there are a tremendous number of potential variables which would distinguish alien life.

      For example, there is a code which maps codons (sequences of three nucleic acids) to amino acids, from which proteins are constructed. This code is arbitrary, and even life with identical overall biochemistry to ours could have a completely different mapping from nucleic acids to amino acids. But when we look at life on earth we find that essentially every species has the exact same code, and the handful that don't still have what is obviously just a slight variation on the universal code -- one or two mappings are different, but the rest is the same.

      The conclusion from this (and a tremendous amount of similar data) is that life on earth has a single source. Period. We do not have organisms that originated on multiple different planets, or we would be able to tell them apart because their biochemistries would be different (again, even if 'life as we know it' is the only possibility, there are enough variables that the odds of two unrelated organisms looking like they evolved on the same planet are essentially zero).

      Obviously, there is no way to tell if the source of life on earth was terrestrial or extraterrestrial, but "terrestrial" is definitely the more logical conclusion. We know that the earth can support life, whereas we do not know of any other location in the universe that can, and it's doubtful that any terrestrial organisms could have survived the traumatic journey between the stars.

      --
      ZFS: because love is never having to say fsck
    10. Re:you're being unscientific by penguin-collective · · Score: 1

      The fact that all life on earth is based on the exact same biochemistry is itself enough to prove common descent [...] we still know that all life on earth descended from a single ancestor, because there are a tremendous number of potential variables which would distinguish alien life.

      You're operating under the mistaken assumption that microorganisms arriving from space would be "alien"; quite to the contrary: if panspermia is true, then the stellar neighborhood is likely filled with life forms with a consistent and common biochemistry.

      We know that the earth can support life, whereas we do not know of any other location in the universe that can

      Our theories about what environments can and cannot support life are so limited and have been proven wrong so often that, at this point, we can't draw any conclusions from them.

      and it's doubtful that any terrestrial organisms could have survived the traumatic journey between the stars.

      Quite to the contrary: experimental data suggests that organisms might well survive interplanetary and even interstellar travel.

      I'm not arguing for panspermia, I'm just saying that, at this point, nobody has a clue about where life originated--let alone any kind of scientific evidence.

  33. I'm not alone here by RickPartin · · Score: 0

    Sometimes things like this make me question my own sanity. Any possible disaster could happen and I would be happy about it so long as it involved either advanced space fighter ships, alien invasion, or both. Come on I'm not alone here. Who else secretly wishes these really turn out to be a bunch of alien microbes even if they end up wiping out our entire planet?

    1. Re:I'm not alone here by kadathseeker · · Score: 1

      I hear ya. As long as I have get my grimy hands on advanced weaponry capable of damaging them, bring it on! Yeah, all you who said my computer games were a waste, what now, huh? Eat lead, bug-breath!

      --
      The 'Net is a waste of time, and that's exactly what's right about it. - William Gibson
  34. The Reds are coming! by themadplasterer · · Score: 1

    A possible case of communist expansion. The region of Kerala in India has a state government which gained the distinction, in 1957, of being the first democratically elected communist government in the world. http://www.indax.com/kerala.html

    1. Re:The Reds are coming! by Max+von+H. · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Since you're quoting the linked article, you may as well copy the whole paragraph evenif it hurts some feelings:

      "Kerala boasts the highest literacy rate in the country (70%), a low infant mortality rate, and is the only state in which females outnumber males. Land distribution is among the most equitable in India, at least partly due to the progressive land ownership policies instituted more than a century ago in what was then the princely state of Travancore. Further extensive land reforms in the 1960's and 70's were carried out by a state government which gained the distinction, in 1957, of being the first democratically elected communist government in the world. Kerala's industrial sector is almost non-existent, however, potential investors from outside being reluctant to engage a highly politicized labour force."

      Huh-oohhh, communism that *does* work? Funny how things go when there's no embargo impeding on people's will.

      --
      -- It's always darker before it goes pitch black.
    2. Re:The Reds are coming! by justasecond · · Score: 1

      Riiight! So an embargo forced Pol Pot to butcher 1/3 of his country's population, Stalin to kill 20,000,000, Mao to kill 50,000,000, Our Eternal Leader Kim to kill 3,000,000 et. cetra! If only the evil capitalists would leave these well-meaning societies alone.

      Comrade, isn't it your turn to pass out little red books on streetcorners this weekend?

    3. Re:The Reds are coming! by Oldsmobile · · Score: 1

      Actually, Pol Pot was supported and sponsored by the US and deposed by communist Vietnam.

      As far as Stalin goes, well, I guess thats inexcusable, however, it was in the process of forced industrialization in the country wich took a few decades in the Soviet Union and hundreds of years in Britain for instance. How many people were killed in the Dikensian nightmare that was Brittain during industrialization?

      Deaths attributed to Mao usually include the famine brought on by the Great Leap Forward. This was actually caused by failed industrial and agricultural policy and poor communications -not really Mao. The other event was the Cultural Revolution, where indeed many people died violently and Mao's name was revered. However, it was not Mao doing the killing, but thousands, perhaps millions of ordinary Chinese. The whole event was truly a giant multifaceted societal upheaval, not the machinations of one man.

      As far as Kim goes, that is for sure a rather depressing regime, but it has been under threat from war and invasion for most of its existance helping to keep a small very powerful bunch of people in power.

      --
      Some say he is made with ascii, others that he is eyeballed daily by millions. All we know is, he is known as the Sig
  35. Uhmm... its quite clear... by Synth3t1c · · Score: 1

    It is quite clear to me that by todays definition of "life" these red microbes do not fall under that category.
    Key Features of life:
    1.)Water
    2.)Carbon
    3.)DNA
    4.)RNA

    The article states:

    Strangely, a test for DNA using Ethidium Bromide dye fluorescence technique indicates absence of DNA in these cells.

    DNA is neccessary for life according to todays definition. Now that definition might be off because that information is taken from a part of my brain that hasn't been used for quite some time. But I know for a fact that DNA is part of todays life definition, therefore until the definition is changed i'm convinced that aliens haven't rained down their child spores to take over the world.

    1. Re:Uhmm... its quite clear... by Zen+Punk · · Score: 1

      uhhhhhhh....no. No, sir. Having DNA and RNA is not required for something to be considered "alive." Now, any organism has to have a way to convey hereditary information, and on this planet, that's DNA and RNA. But we've never seen life from elsewhere, and I've never heard anyone seriously suggest that the way to look for extraterrestrial life involves DNA tests.

      --
      Sleep is futile.
    2. Re:Uhmm... its quite clear... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I was under the impression that viri have only RNA, but are considered "life." But, I haven't had a biology class in 6 years.

    3. Re:Uhmm... its quite clear... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Never heard of Archaea, eh? Strange that you'd miss an entire Domain what with being such an expert on life and all. oh wait... you're not. If you had passed elementary school science, you'd know that the basic requirements to meet the modern definition of life are: homeostasis, metabolism, growth, and reproductive ability.

    4. Re:Uhmm... its quite clear... by SharpFang · · Score: 1

      No, viruses (virii is a 1337sp33ch) are NOT considered 'life' as much as tricky and far-fetched the explaination may sound. I do remember this from my biology class.

      --
      45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
    5. Re:Uhmm... its quite clear... by SharpFang · · Score: 1

      It is quite clear to me that by todays definition of "life" these red microbes do not fall under that category.

      No. By today's definition of protein-based life. That's all.

      --
      45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
    6. Re:Uhmm... its quite clear... by Angry+Toad · · Score: 1

      Are you saying the Archaea don't have DNA, RNA, water, or carbon?

          This will come as a great shock to the people I know who regularly exploit all of these things in their studies of them.

    7. Re:Uhmm... its quite clear... by Ztream · · Score: 1

      What? The definition of life "today" is highly debated, but I have never even heard such an extremely narrow one before. This is definitely not the standard textbook definition. Are you trolling?

      Wikipedia may not be the ultimate authority on things, but check out the article on Life for a few proposed definitions. What you list sounds more like characteristics of life on Earth than a definition.

    8. Re:Uhmm... its quite clear... by Synth3t1c · · Score: 1

      Well, going against apparently what is listed on wikipedia, the few things I listed were accepted by the AP test. If you read my statement earlier, I wrote that some may be wrong and I was sure about DNA. I am 100% sure that DNA was one of the requirements of life that I needed to know for my AP test.

      After some browsing on wiki's life entry, It says reproduce freely (that is their reason for saying virii is a grey area). However, if you follow that reproduction link you fill find this:

      Mitosis and meiosis are an integral part of cell division.

      Now, Mitosis and meiosis need genetic material to work, and that IS a fact. Once again, however, it falls in the grey area with viruses, but since it has to do this process of copying/splitting the cells, I do believe that reinforces my first statement.

    9. Re:Uhmm... its quite clear... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Cool. So I guess the logic behind this is:

      First, all life we have this far encountered have [a list of attributes], therefore having these is a requirement for all life.
      Scond, biologists own the term "life" and have the right to (mis-)define it as they please. No other fields are affected by whether martians with their triple-helix WTFNA are considered life.

    10. Re:Uhmm... its quite clear... by Hal_Porter · · Score: 1

      That web page describes how DNA based life works, which is fair enough since it's the only kind we've found.

      But you can imagine non-DNA based life. Either there would be some analogous molecule that contained information in a long chain, or the information would be stored in a completely different way, like in crystals.

      My hunch is that the DNA/RNA protein based architecture which has the monopoly now is too sophisticated to be the original one. I'd guess there was some simpler predecessor which was able to make RNA and peptides as tools. Once they environoment was full of these, you could have a new version of life developing, perhaps gradually ditching the simpler version for performance reasons. Maybe there were several architectures, each more complex than the last. It's a bit like how we make machines for our own purposes, but they may one day far supersede us in terms of abilities.

      The problem is that no one has come up with a plausible 'simpler architecture' than the current one. But with a bit of luck, either someone will discover it deep in the Earth's crust, or figure it out from scratch. Or maybe life started with RNA or PNA in solution.

      But I don't think mitosis/meiosis is necessary for life - even for DNA based life you can copy DNA is a much simpler way, something like PCR. Viruses can self assemble in solution too. So presumably the earliest DNA based life reproduced something like this.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Cairns-Smith

      --
      echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
    11. Re:Uhmm... its quite clear... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's a pretty weird definition of life you have. I thought the definition was reproduction, metabolism, adaptability, etc, not chemistry.

  36. Well making a giant leap by SmallFurryCreature · · Score: 1
    and assuming this is a life form then this doesn't prove that we are immune to it. You see, this lifeform is an EX-lifeform. It has ceased to be. It is a dead space born cell based lifeform.

    I don't know what killed it although exploding on entry might be a clue.

    Anyway anyone knows that all alien invasions start of slowly at first. They are probably biding their time infiltrating our culture and drawing key companies under their evil control. You don't think outsourcing to india is just a coincidince right?

    --

    MMO Quests are like orgasms:

    You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.

  37. Intelligent Design by liangzai · · Score: 3, Funny

    This could be the ultimate proof the ID camp has been looking for... God jerking off, spreading his seed, instilling life into the lifeless soil. The Beloved Gardener in the Heavenly Paradise Cometh unto us.

    1. Re:Intelligent Design by ArtfulDodger75 · · Score: 1

      No, clearly this is bolognaise from the Flying Spaghietti Monster.

    2. Re:Intelligent Design by AliasMoze · · Score: 1

      Jerking off is intelligent? This news pleases me.

    3. Re:Intelligent Design by Sebilrazen · · Score: 1

      The Beloved Gardener in the Heavenly Paradise Cometh onto us

      --
      "There are no facts, only interpretations." --Friedrich Nietzsche.
    4. Re:Intelligent Design by Swervin · · Score: 1

      If you're right he should probably see a doctor. . .red. . .that doesn't sound healthy at all.

    5. Re:Intelligent Design by Johnno74 · · Score: 1

      Hehehe

      That would mean earth just got a big facial

      Ewwwww...

    6. Re:Intelligent Design by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The ID people like jerking off?

      Sorry, let me rephrase that.

      The ID people are in favor of masturbation? This is news to me.

  38. It's just perception by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I would think, since we humans have not discovered all the possible forms of life on earth, any thing out of the ordinary can be called 'alien' and extra-terrestrial based on perception. Just a couple of months ago, BBC reported scientists have found a new mammal that looks like a cat. Just because it was on the ground it supposedly always existed on earth and we didn't know about it. Why not use the same explanaition for raindrops as well. It might just have been an aerial microbe we haven't yet encountered. When visiting USA they still ask me if I'm an illegal alien. Someday I might as well snap out of my human skin.

  39. Meteor theory amusing but not necessary by barakn · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The prevalence of the red rain along the southwest coast of India is explained in the paper as being the trail of a meteor that happened to follow the coast. I explain it with this June- Sept precipitation map, which shows the coast receiving 150 cm of rain while areas immediately to the east get 30 cm. Red rain fell in areas where rain is likely to fall. No need to invoke a meteor for which there is little evidence.

    --
    "I'm so moist I'm sticking to the leather." -Kermit the Frog on The Late Late Show
    1. Re:Meteor theory amusing but not necessary by shaitand · · Score: 1

      Yes and presumably the rain that would have fallen anyway was red because it had picked up material in the atmosphere from the tail of the meteor.

    2. Re:Meteor theory amusing but not necessary by barakn · · Score: 1

      Although the trend is more subtle than for rain, a population density map shows that there are more people living along the southwest coast than to the east. There were reports of red rain along that coast because that's where the rain fell and that's where there were a lot of people to observe it.

      --
      "I'm so moist I'm sticking to the leather." -Kermit the Frog on The Late Late Show
    3. Re:Meteor theory amusing but not necessary by pkphilip · · Score: 1

      There is a mountain range (Western Ghats) running in a roughly north south direction in the south of India. This mountain range acts as a barrier and prevents the south-west monsoon winds from reaching parts of the east and as a consequence the south-west regions of India typically get more rain than the south-east sections.

      About population density - it is true that the south-west has a higher population density that the south-east, but you must see this from the perspective that the density of population in the east is not low by any definition.

  40. bad paper by penguin-collective · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If this were related to panspermia, one would expect to find DNA or RNA and they didn't. But their experiments were pretty poor to begin with: it's easy to test for lipids, proteins, sugars, amino acids as well and they didn't.

    1. Re:bad paper by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Trolling or just misguided? It's all about non-protein based lifeforms. It doesn't have two hands, two legs and one head, therefore it can't think?

    2. Re:bad paper by the+eric+conspiracy · · Score: 1

      Trolling or just misguided?

      Presumably panspermia would require the extraterrestrial lifeform be protein based.

    3. Re:bad paper by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, you're misguided. Panspermia is a theory that says that life on earth is derived from life that arrived from space. That requires that such life is based on DNA, RNA, proteins, and lipids.

      There may well be other forms of life in the universe, and it may even rain down on earth, but while immensely interesting, finding such life wouldn't be support for panspermia.

  41. Re:POLL for Single Slashdotters by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    22 and about 8 months. I started dating a girl 6 months ago, but she decided to break my heart last month. She never gave it up either. :-(

  42. Red rain==Iron !ET by zenst · · Score: 0

    Given most metorite have iron then the breakup in the upper atomosphere would produce alot of iron particles.

    Now if said particles get caught into the atomosphere and gravity they will fall. If they hit moisture laiden cloads they will act as catolists in the production of rain (this is how rain forms). As such the higher precipitation and red nature of the rain are totaly explainable without calling in ET.

  43. This illustrates a problem by bremstrong · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This illustrates a problem with the way science is presently conducted.

    Apparently, two years ago a scientist in India wrote a paper about a long series of tests he conducted on a potential non-dna based life form that can reproduce at 300C and may have arrived on a comet.

    Of course it sounds unlikely, but if he's right, it is the scientific find of the century.

    And, he has samples of the purported organism.

    If scientists were really seeking uncover truth, they'd have repeated his work at five different labs and see if it held up.

    Instead, they're all to scared of looking silly to their peers, and they barely even let the Indian researcher publish his findings!

    Does anyone else see this as a problem?

    1. Re:This illustrates a problem by Inaffect · · Score: 1

      Can you post a link to this?

    2. Re:This illustrates a problem by kindbud · · Score: 1

      No. It's too easy to be a crackpot.

      If scientists were really seeking uncover truth, they'd have repeated his work at five different labs and see if it held up.

      Right, they're just going to abandon their own research to confirm someone else's. Yeah, that's how science should work.

      --
      Edith Keeler Must Die
  44. Re:POLL for Single Slashdotters by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Let's see, I'm 27 and the last time was never, so that makes it 27 years.

    Not kidding (This is /. after all)

  45. Software glitches in the Matrix by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Agent Smith: Damn we need a better Operating System, this one just started crashing our program and things started changing color.

    Agent Two: Gosh, that explains those frogs falling out of the sky and the recent red rain stuff, so Reboot?

    Smith: Not as simple as that we need to get something out of the matrix, they call it Linux, they say it can run clusters - we might find it useful.

    Two: The last time we took a program out of the Matrix, it made all Windows into stone walls despite being called Windows. This one will replace all humans with penguins, forget it!

    Smith: Hey, what's the name of that thing we're running?

    Two: M.......... <Carrier not found, Connection Lost>

  46. Planet X... by TheIndifferentiate · · Score: 1

    or Nibiru is supposed to spread a red dust with its passing: "When Nibiru passes between the Earth and the Sun, small red dust will rain down coloring drinking water reddish." There's info on it here and here although there are probably better sites out there. I haven't read about it in a long time, but it is interesting junk that Sitchin talked about that couldn't possibly be true, except we keep finding big stuff floating out there past the Kuiper belt. Who knows... Hmm, note to self-gather up tin foil for project with the kids tomorrow.

  47. we have just entered a distinct era in history by lordholm · · Score: 2, Funny

    Both warp drives and aliens the same week. It should be clear that the alien bacteria detected the warp drive research and decided to make contact, unfortunately the all perished when their space ship blew up over India.

    Now, we will never know what they wanted, and their friends will believe that we shot them down...

    --
    "Civis Europaeus sum!"
  48. red minerals by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    red dirt and minerals are most likely oxidized iron & iron ore (rust), be it either terrestrial or extraterrestrial

  49. waterspout and red algae? by afaiktoit · · Score: 1

    Thats my theory

  50. So, wheres the meteor? by tenco · · Score: 1

    Shouldn't a meteoroid with over 50 tons of mass be quite visible on entry into the earth's athmosphere (even through clouds)? Was a meteor recorded a short time before that time when the read rain fell in Kerala?

    1. Re:So, wheres the meteor? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I am from Kerala and it is true. I remember seeing the beautiful leonid meteor showers in 2001.

  51. Red rain is coming down, red rain by Jafafa+Hots · · Score: 1

    Red rain is pouring down Pouring down all over me

    --
    This space available.
  52. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 3, Informative

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  53. Sauce by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Obviously it was the flying spaghetti monster blessing them with spaghetti sauce.

    1. Re:Sauce by Attrition_cp · · Score: 2, Funny

      RAmen.

      --
      Touched By His Noodley Appendage.
  54. I suggest you learn some biology by Flying+pig · · Score: 1

    Many life-forms (grasses, radiolarians,molluscs for example) include large amounts of both silican and calcium carbonate in their skeletal and exoskeletal structures. I suggest you find out what chalk is actually made from - you might be surprised.

    --
    Pining for the fjords
  55. Nah, a "Species" reference ain't geeky enough.... by bobdobbs3 · · Score: 1

    Let the Chtorran War begin! Just when IS he coming out with that Goddamned book, already?!?!?

    --


    This is the best Democracy money can buy?!?!?
  56. don't encourage them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You know those religious nutjobs probably get excited when their traffic spikes, "Halleluia! New followers!"

  57. Yes, that must be it... by Jugalator · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Raining Extraterrestrial Microbes in Kerala?

    Meanwhile, Occam turned in his grave.

    --
    Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
  58. Alien infected India by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "...may be extraterrestrial microbes."

    Great! Can we really trust our outscourcing to alien infected India?

  59. The research and paper seem quite factual by Morgaine · · Score: 4, Insightful

    >> This is a stupid paper.

    Not at all. Their research examines quite a large range of characteristics of the particles and of the rainfall, and even presents some controls. It's not as tight as some nor, as sloppy as others, but falls well within the mean of the scientific method.

    The fact that one particular type of test was not performed by them does not make this a stupid paper --- it just leaves that analysis for some other team to perform. Indeed, they seem to have covered a collosal amount of ground for a single research group already.

    Their Discussion section is not part of their scientific findings, but merely provides room for discussion. Non-DNA-based "life" from outer space is a *possible* handwaving interpretation at best, but since no other interpretation matches both the microscopic visual structure and the chemical composition and the rain-distribution pattern simultaneously, it's the best we have at this stage.

    >> Trivial test - stain them for bloody cellulose!

    Go right ahead and do it yourself, or communicate with them about it. But who said that ET life would employ cellulose anyway? That notwithstanding, it would be a useful test to perform anyway, as it would help discount other possibilities.

    Their earlier non-peer-reviewed papers might have been worth your label of "stupid" (meaning non-scientific) in part, but this one is quite factual in all its research sections.

    --
    "The question of whether machines can think is no more interesting than [] whether submarines can swim" - Dijkstra
    1. Re:The research and paper seem quite factual by Angry+Toad · · Score: 1

      The fact that one particular type of test was not performed by them does not make this a stupid paper --- it just leaves that analysis for some other team to perform.

      No.

      They found red, cell-like objects. They did some extraordinarily basic tests on them, some of which are so utterly simple-minded that they betray a total lack of understading about the characteristics of the kind of life they're trying to exclude as possibilities (see my upthread comment about the ethidium bromide test). There is **not one** test in there anywhere which positively excludes terrestrial life as a source for these cell-like objects.

      Since their silly and uninformed experimental setup didn't make these things do what they had some vague notion that microbes should do, their conclusion was that theses might be extraterrestrial life forms.

      That's such a colossal leap that it truly warrants the term "stupid".

      The paper is so fundamentally flawed and uninformed that it really doesn't deserve a second look or any further discussion. If they can get a respected microbiologist to come in and do some kind of sensible work with them, it might be worth considering.

      Personally I'd jump up and down making excited squealing noises if they had real evidence for extraterrestrial life. This paper misses the boat by such a wide margin as to be utterly laughable. They should stick to the physics, where I hope their science might be up to something better than high-school standards.

    2. Re:The research and paper seem quite factual by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If they can get a respected microbiologist to come in and do some kind of sensible work with them, it might be worth considering.

      A respected microbiologist would have no special insight into exobiology, unless he happened to specialize in that niche area, which would almost certainly then make him less respected among microbiologists. :-)

    3. Re:The research and paper seem quite factual by t35t0r · · Score: 1

      Is the test for DNA the same as the test for RNA? DNA evolved from RNA, could the cells use this as an information carrying medium?

    4. Re:The research and paper seem quite factual by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That makes no sense.

  60. Re:Great. Space herpes. by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

    Damn! Even asteroids get more action with planets than I do!

    --
    (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
  61. Dis-info in three flavors. . . by Fantastic+Lad · · Score: 1
    Dis-info.

    The idea of Nibiru is pretty silly. There are three types of dis-info pattern which I tend to group ideas into;

    1. Cult thinking. (Including Scientology and Heaven's Gate stuff.)

    2. Religious dogmatic thinking. (Christianity and church based uniformity of thought. Similar to Cult thinking, in that it is false knowledge designed to control people, but accepted by the masses.)

    3. Pulp Science Fiction, Mad Scientist thinking. --This would include things like the Hollow Earth theory, Nibiru, Cthulu, etc. Ideas which never quite spawned religious movements because they were just a bit too insane-sounding.

    All three categories, however, seem to be constructed in the same way; you take a bit of truth and warp it so that it has a ring of authenticity which serves to mislead people and keep them bogged down. For instance, the Hollow Earth theory, I susect, might be based on a warped understanding of the extensive underground tunnels and bases which the U.S. has been digging, as well as similar structures constructed by past civilizations. Basically there are a lot of people living underground with a lot of technology, and even the most innocent of their activities are draped in deep secrecy.

    Nibiru, similarly, seems to me a concept based on the idea of the alien reality combined with the Nemesis theory, (the Nemasis theory being that irregularities in the orbits of the planets are due to a brown dwarf companion star with an elliptical orbit and a period of some 300,000 years or so which upon its nearest passing knocks a cloud of matter from the Kuiper belt into a lower orbit. This cloud of rocks has an approximate 3600 year period which coincides with cyclical disasters appearing on Earth, and which generally peppers the inner planets with debris to catastrophic effect.)


    -FL

    1. Re:Dis-info in three flavors. . . by TheIndifferentiate · · Score: 1

      Nibiru as a planet seems very plausible to me. I don't know about any of that other stuff you seem concerned about. The Sumerians knew about all the planets that we knew about plus some, and now we're finding stuff bigger than Pluto out there. Every time one of our probes zips by a planet, we find improbable-seeming stuff that we cannot readily explain. The Voyagers are off their predicted courses, and we don't know why. Seems like we may not know as much as we'd like to think, and if that is the case, you'd think we'd be slower to draw ridicule about things we cannot disprove until such time as we are able to. Like the face on Mars thing. It looked like a face in the old imagery, but with better technology, we were able to resolve better images. Now it doesn't look like a face. The better technology is now allowing us to detect these large Kuiper objects. Now the Sumerian planets are looking more like they exist. I'm not pushing aliens or any of that other stuff you brought up, just planets. That's not dis-info.

    2. Re:Dis-info in three flavors. . . by Fantastic+Lad · · Score: 1
      Nibiru as a planet seems very plausible to me. I don't know about any of that other stuff you seem concerned about. The Sumerians knew about all the planets that we knew about plus some, and now we're finding stuff bigger than Pluto out there.

      Well, sure, there are other objects out there, but when you say, 'Nibiru', it's important to be specific. There's the Sumerian name which I think refers to a comet cluster which appears as a single body upon its approach, and which would indeed result in disastrous effects upon arrival. And then. . .

      There's Sitchin's version of the tenth planet which according to him and his believers is an artificially piloted planet filled with aliens who are coming to get us. On my implauso-meter, that ranks a lot higher than comets.

      This is not to say, of course, that I find aliens implausible. I just don't think they descend from Sitchin's silly fable which I find resonates heavily with cultic/mad-scientist thinking.


      -FL

  62. All these posts and no Fred Hoyle? by dbIII · · Score: 1

    Fred Hoyle was an astronomer in the UK who proposed the life from space idea and was widely ridiculed but received a lot of press. He was used to this because some year proir he determined how all of the heavier elements are formed in stars and was ridiculed until he was proved correct. One piece of utter brilliance doesn't mean you know everything - and his influenza from space theory was considered far more complicated than simple mutation so somewhat unlikely.

  63. Prions by WindBourne · · Score: 1

    Prions (Mad Cow disease, scrapies, Chronic Wasting disease, etc) have no [DR]NA. Not exactly life, but they were discovered just 25 years ago. Who is to say that life could not exists with out [DR]NA?

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  64. Re:Access Forbidden... because my Browser is too o by advocate_one · · Score: 1

    erm... I had absolutely NO problems at all with my firefox on Ubuntu 5.10...

    Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-GB; rv:1.7.12) Gecko/20051010 Firefox/1.0.7 (Ubuntu package 1.0.7)

    --
    Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
  65. "peer review" is not always peer review by hde226868 · · Score: 5, Informative
    Although Astrophysics and Space Science is peer reviewed, you should be aware that this journal is not held in very high esteem by the astronomy and astrophysics community (contrary to, e.g., the Astrophysical Journal, Astronomy and Astrophysics, or the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society). If you don't believe me, take a look at the impact factor of the journal , which is 0.2, while it is greater than 4 for the renowed astronomical journals (the 2.1 for Astronomy and Astrophysics in the list cited is wrong, but the remaining impact factors for astronomical journals more or less scale with the journal's image in the community).

    To understand how this article could be published, you should be aware that for all scientific journals the editor has the last responsibility for accepting a paper, not the peer reviewers. In the case of Astrophysics and Space Science, the editorial board contains N.C. Wickramasinghe, who is one of the inventors of the panspermia theory. So, even although peer reviews might have been dodgy, it could have been an editorial decision to accept this paper.

    I happen to know that Astrophysics and Space Science operates this way, as a manuscript I co-reviewed with a PhD student of mine several years ago appeared in the journal without taking any of our recommendations into account. This has not happened to me with any of the 30odd manuscripts I have refereed since and is even more astonishing since the journal decided to print the original manuscript, without even addressing the large number of grammatical mistakes and spelling errors pointed out by us (which were so bad that we, as referees, could not understand what the authors were trying to say). I have declined to referee for Astrophysics and Space Science since and consider the journal a "scientific tabloid" as opposed to a "scientific broadsheet". And you wouldn't believe the "Sun" and the "News of the World" either, right?

    So, to conclude, "peer refereed" does not always mean what you might think it does, and although I am not a microbiology specialist, as long as a report on the "red rain" is not accepted by a mainstream journal, would doubt any claims made in the article.

    1. Re:"peer review" is not always peer review by cinnamon+colbert · · Score: 1

      Im shocked to find problems with peer review ....

      I mean, what clueless moron takes peer rev seriously ? Even at the 'best" journals, nature and science, and phy rev and JACS etc, there is a large amt of crap, stuff put in to get people tenure, stuff put in cause its someones students, etc.

      the only thing you can say, ala winston churchill, is that it is the worst system ever invented, except for all the others ( Sydney Brenner, one of the outstanding molecular biologists of our time, has some amusing thoughts in his biography, as, I believe, nobelist kornberg does to

    2. Re:"peer review" is not always peer review by the+eric+conspiracy · · Score: 1

      The peer review process is a work of man, not God, so it is not perfect and the particpants are only human. However it can have great benefits. Here is a wonderful article about Einstein's expereince with Phy Rev.

      http://www.physicstoday.org/vol-58/iss-9/p43.html

    3. Re:"peer review" is not always peer review by shaitand · · Score: 1

      I prefer journals the present the articles and leave it to me to decide if the information contained in them is valid. "Mainstream" journals do not print extreme material, it has to start somewhere.

    4. Re:"peer review" is not always peer review by kureido · · Score: 1

      For the uninitiated, the "impact factor" of a scientific journal as calculated by the Institute for Scientific Information is the ratio of the number of times articles in that publication are cited in the journals the ISI tracks to the number of articles published in that publication. It's a useful but somewhat controversial measure of a publication's "importance" to the scientific community.

    5. Re:"peer review" is not always peer review by Aardpig · · Score: 1

      Amen. A friend of mine refers to A&SS as the "Sargasso Journal" -- where old papers go to die :)

      --
      Tubal-Cain smokes the white owl.
  66. Re:POLL for Single Slashdotters by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    25, 3 months (g/f lives in a different country)

  67. Interesting, but... by Kr3m3Puff · · Score: 1

    I agree the article is interesting, but a couple things stand out. Four years is enough time to get samples to more broad and credible scientific community. Also, if you read the "structure" the essentially seem to be some sort of "carbon bubbles" with some iron, silicon and oxgyen. IMHO, it would appear more likely these are some sort of space dust versus space life. They claim a "cellular" type membrane, but they appear to be devoid of internal cellular scructures. Also, sitting in a jar for 4 years seems to have done nothing in decay or "procreation" for the items.

    Some strange, yet unknown geothermal (either Earth based or extra terrestrial based) process could have produced these and they simply were transplanted. Eitehr way, it does sound interesting and that more people should take a look at this, but I highly doubt this is an example of panspermia.

    --
    D.O.U.O.S.V.A.V.V.M.
  68. Re:POLL for Single Slashdotters by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Two days.

    No, really, g/f lives in another city but she just spent a whole week with me and left thursday.

    Well, now I'm not gonna get any for at least two weeks, if not more. *Snif*

  69. Re:POLL for Single Slashdotters by Knights+who+say+'INT · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Um, forgot to post my age. (I'm the *Snif* anonymous coward) I'm 23. I was 22 when I first had sex.

    Don't despair. If you're not good with teh chicks, wait for true love. It's pretty awkward still being a virgin at 22; women expect sexual experience you haven't, and you need someone who will tolerate you not knowing what the hell to do the first times.

    I guess, anyway. Sex in a deep romantic relationship is more fun, anyway. It can be wild & rough, it can be caring & sweet, it can involve teh weird fetishes you wouldn't confess to the average chick, and all.

    Just try to be an interesting person and don't worry too much. Geeks are interesting people in their own right, and as long as you can geek out over a wider range of subjects you should be all set. In your early-20s, the social skills you lacked during your teens aren't that complicated anymore, and it's easier to go out and mingle.

    Oh, btw. I met my g/f on IRC. She was first attracted to my grammar.

    Try to find love.

  70. Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I call bs I didnt see any red rain damn it.

  71. Off topicness. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Your posting required too much thinking to rate anything but off-topic.

    Please have some more hot grits and try again later.

  72. Chubby Rain? by Zaiff+Urgulbunger · · Score: 1

    Sorry, I got here late and I'm disappointed that no one has mentioned Chubby Rain!

    1. Re:Chubby Rain? by bLindmOnkey · · Score: 1

      as in aliens are coming to earth in rain and will soon take over the world!

  73. See? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See? Now your score is icking up.

    The easiest trick, short of the hot grits and petrifying ms. Portman, is linking to a juicy video, like this 43 MB catsuit extravaganza: http://rapidshare.de/files/7978013/silver_and_blac k.avi.html

    Regards from your anonymous Slashdot popularity consultant

  74. Re:Access Forbidden... because my Browser is too o by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    For these cases I suggest using a script that loads the page simultaneously with each and every user-agent string in existence.

  75. Re:POLL for Single Slashdotters by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    23, 5 months.

  76. Re:Access Forbidden... because my Browser is too o by infolib · · Score: 1
    I think it's your administrator that needs contacting.

    Yep. On two occasions I've found them blocking the gateway IP for the UCopenhagen institute of physics - and I'm just one user. Something about bots scanning from our network. Not that I can really think of anyone who'd want to do that. The bot alarm is probably just oversensitive. Now of course you can get around that by using for instance de.arxiv.org instead, but the admin really should cut down on the paranoia.

    --
    Any sufficiently advanced libertarian utopia is indistinguishable from government.
  77. Re:POLL for Single Slashdotters by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    23 years, something like 5 years :(

  78. Re:POLL for Single Slashdotters by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I disagree. Not worrying about it is going to get you nothing. Not worrying about it is why I didn't get anywhere for so long. If I could hit whoever gave me that advice when I was young I would not hesitate.

  79. Just happened in Chicago by the_Bionic_lemming · · Score: 1

    we have reports it happened in Chicago too.

    http://www.nbc5.com/news/5884173/detail.html

    --
    _ _ _ Go for the eyes Boo! GO FOR THE EYES!
  80. Life != DNA and ET Microbes != Panspermia by Larthallor · · Score: 2, Interesting
    So many conclusions, so much jumping, so little logic.

    • First and foremost, this is most likely not a life form. Such a finding would be the greatest discovery in fundamental biology since pinning down the function and structure of DNA. The announcement of such discoveries by frauds and the mistaken are much more common than the actual thing. However, it is possible that these are extraterrestrial spores. If the second unpublished paper describing reproduction is accurate (a big "if"), then they most likely are extremeophiles and are possibly extraterrestrial in origin.
    • DNA is not a requirement for life, as many commenters here have written. DNA (and/or RNA) is at the core of all life on Earth because all present life forms appear to have a common ancestor that used these molecules for it's genetics. The fundamental mechanism used to replicate oneself is the most likely of traits to be highly conserved in evolutionary biology and this is exactly what we are seeing. However, this does not imply that DNA (or RNA) is the only such mechanism possible, especially when the environment that fostered the transition from inorganic to organic is in a different temperature/pressure regime (300 degrees C!). Just as DNA would be useless as a genetic mechanism in the kinds of environments the paper's authors say they see replication in, a molecule that is useful in that environment would not likely be chemically functional in our relatively frigid and low pressure Earth surface environment.

      Therefore, absence of DNA is not unexpected.

    • If this does turn out to be extraterrestrial life, then the possibility that life could drift from world to world becomes a fact. This does not, however, mean that the origin of life here on Earth is due to such transport. Just because it is possible doesn't mean it has happened, let alone is responsible for the modern biosphere.

      The people that make the instant leap from the possibility of interplanetary spores surviving to the assumption that this must be how life began here have always puzzled me. After all, the life in such a scenario had to develop somewhere before traveling to Earth. Why is it so difficult to believe that the life we see today is truly indigenous?

      I think I now realize why these people are so ardent that life came from somewhere else: they continue to be mired in the historical notion that the beginning of life required some unique event to get started. In this way, they have much in common with creationists and the general public. The lesson to take from this if it is real is not that life came from space, but that life springs out of non-life with relative ease.

    1. Re:Life != DNA and ET Microbes != Panspermia by E++99 · · Score: 1
      The lesson to take from this if it is real is not that life came from space, but that life springs out of non-life with relative ease.
      Relative to what??? Clearly it's not easy compared to anything the human race has done so far, since we've never managed to get that to happen. If this is a life form distinct from earth-life then either 1) the two life forms descended from a common ancestor, or 2) the two life forms independently transformed from non-life into life (either with or without supernatural aid).

      In other words, we still won't know anything about it.
  81. Microsoft DGL? by maxrate · · Score: 1

    I recall Microsoft had a problem with their MS Office clipart site - design gallery live (DGL). You type in monkey, and it showed a black kid playing on a jungle-gym!

  82. Is this journal really peer-reviewed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's been some time since I left Astronomy, but "Astrophysics and Space Science" is NOT a peer-reviewed journal! (At least that's how it was in the 90's.) The articles posted there contained usually 4-th rate results (usually on solar physics and stellar dynamics) and their credibility was extremenly low. If any respected researcher had at any time posted anything in this journal he usually didn't mention it in his later life! If these people had really found something this monumental, they would have tried "Nature" or "Science" or something similar--but then, the referees there are pretty tough, so trash rarely gets through...

  83. Among everything else by inphizzible_friend · · Score: 0

    Among nuclear bombs, idiot president. Desease, war, pestilence, single mothers, gay opression, Hitler, The Necronamicon, aids, global warming, endangered species, your mother-in-law, and the general earth slowly dying thing we can now add, "Welcome Aliens" to the to-do list.

    --
    Women- the final frontier...
  84. This can't be extraterrestrial. by Burz · · Score: 1

    The red rain continued to appear sporadically for about two months, though most of it fell in the first 10 days, Louis and Kumar wrote.

    From a meteor?? I don't think so.

  85. Re:POLL for Single Slashdotters by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    (31 years old, virgin)

    That's got to be the worst advice I have ever read. You just mixed several cliches with glittering generalities and ended with some vague and sappy one liner.

    Here is what some people, sadly, need to hear.

    If you're still a virgin by 25, stop. That's it. Just stop. This was the advice that some one gave me at that stage in my life. I was feeling miserable, analyzing what it could be that I was doing wrong, what was wrong with ME. But from somewhere on the internet came a much wiser man than I was who told me the truth. Just stop trying. It wasn't my fault, but at the same time, there was nothing I could do. You need to focus less on trying to achieve the unachievable and focus on preparing to accept what you have feared for the better part of your life. Once you accept it, you're free of it, and nothing can hold the rest of you back. Don't feel sorry for yourself, it wasn't your fault to begin with, so don't beat yourself up for it. The alternative is to continue your life, endlessly trying to find the words to say to that girl, or trying to muster the courage to walk up to that person, but always coming up empty. The problem is within yourself, it's not your fault, but nothing can defeat it, it lives off failure and every attempt or attempt at an attempt only feeds it. Since you can't win don't play the game.

    I welcome anyone who is in the same position I was to join me. Just stop trying. It was the best decision I have ever made, and I havn't looked back.

  86. Red Soil = Red Rain by FlashPimp · · Score: 1

    you all may not know this, but Kerala has Rich Red Soil to begin with, this may be the source of the red rain look it up for yourself

  87. Did anybody read his first two papers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Uh, it looks like he's claiming that he has observed the growth cycle of the organism.

  88. Re:POLL for Single Slashdotters by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Not the parent poster, but I'll add some more unconnected random thoughts. (Not for you necessarily, parent, but for anybody...)

    If you've been "trying" for N years and haven't gotten any at all, it means what you were trying was plain wrong.

    If being "who you are" means being a sad sack, meek, unconfident, wishy-washy, fawning, weak-kneed, socially awkward, jittery, never making eye-contact, never getting a damn hair-cut, then you will likely not attract cuties. If you think: giving whatever a woman asks for, "agreeing" with her all the time, calling her all the time, always being available when she wants, constantly changing your plans or opinions to accommodate her, etc. are the least bit attractive, you are wrong. Acting like a creepy stalker instead of just talking to the damn person is also not sexy. If you think "oh she's not like that! She's different!" most of the time you are in for an unhappy, platonic surprise.

    Look back at every awkward, sexless relationship you've had and try hard to remember the exact things you did that drove the girl away, and stop doing those. Also stop praying or using any other sort of magical thinking, that doesn't work either.

    I've seen some pretty miserable, smelly, ugly fuckers manage to get laid, so unless you're way off the dial in these respects, you should be able to get some too.

    Read lots about attraction, seduction, "pickup guides" as possible. Read forums, and not just shit from people who are only trying to sell you something. Some of it's junk, but don't just dismiss everything unfairly, you've gotta be humble. If you have any friends who obviously "get it", get some advice and see if it's usable.

    Here's some more sparkling generalities: getting lucky is for losers. You've gotta slay a few dragons to get to the princess. Life isn't fair.

  89. excerpt from paper by bremstrong · · Score: 1

    Cycle C: This is the spore forming life cycle of these microbes. Prolonged growth at high temperature with lack of nutrients appears to be the reason for spore formation. In this cycle, some of the grown cells can be found to show a pair formation tendency (stage 3 of cycle C) as a first step towards the formation of spores (Fig. 4d). Two or three or rarely even more cells linger around each other closely for some time and they finally get fused together and form a common thin outer mucus layer around them (stage 4 of cycle C). Later this thin mucus layer becomes very thick and hard (stage 5 of cycle C) and the compound cell becomes a spore with color change from white to yellowish and finally red (stage 6 of cycle C). The red spore cells show different shapes like spherical, ellipsoidal and slightly elongated shapes with septum like formation at the center and also some have a triangular shape. The elongated shapes are due to the fusion of two cells of equal or unequal sizes and the triangular shapes are due to the fusion of three cells. The original red rain cells that caused the red rain phenomenon in Kerala also exhibit these characteristic shapes. This spore state appears to be a resting phase of these organisms. The thick outer layer of the spores disintegrates and releases the enclosed original cells only when nutrients and growth conditions are persistently available.

  90. Lovely Yeast and Red Blood Cells by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is a total fake. The electron microscopy pictures there are scanned right out of textbooks. One of those cells is clearly a sickle red blood cell. The Yeast in the other picture is even budding off (upper right).

  91. I second the shenanigans... by TCQuad · · Score: 1

    The EtBr treatment only states on the presence of double stranded DNA. It intercholates in the base stacks, meaning, aside from poor lysis, if DNase activity (contamination from the user/innate DNase activity usually sequestered away from the nucleus) was present and broke down the DNA into individual bases during the procedure, then their crude scan would be useless. Nevermind the possibility the poor little microbes might be dead and mostly broken down due to being in the cold/oxygenated/hypotonic environment of the clouds for however long... None of the usual answers might be forthcoming using their rudimentary techniques, nor some of the "normal" molecular biology techniques if the microbes are dead.

    Given that this stuff literally falls from the sky (they should have enough to do some more brute-force assays), I would be curious as to what could be done to determine protein sequence/structure (potentially more stable than DNA, definitely more stable than RNA). Precipitate off some outer membrane proteins and send them off for Edman degredation and trypsin analysis. See if it matches anything (or comes close enough to assign a phylogenic probability to it).

    I've also completely ignored the possibility of astrological origin, which could mean standard DNA and protein approaches might not work, since they might not use DNA to code for amino-acid based proteins. Panspermia's not impossible, but I think the more likely mundane scenario involves something propelling the dust/microbes into the atmosphere (natural occurance, like a tornado, could do the trick) and those microbes raining down.

  92. Alert Richard C Hoagland! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0


    He will fly there personally and perform perfectly adequate scientific analysis on the red stuff...

    Everybody should get an Angstrom Award - it turns them into geniuses!

  93. Re:POLL for Single Slashdotters by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    How old are you and how long's it been since you had sex?

    48. Three hours. She's 18. You guys don't live in the right place...

    (No, I didn't pay her. I did pay the taxi fare.)

  94. Koi Mil Gaya? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So will we find an alien in India, and name him Jadoo?

  95. Re:POLL for Single Slashdotters by wintermute1974 · · Score: 1

    I'm 31 years old and it's been three years.

    After breaking up with the girl of my dreams after a six year relationship, I decided to spend some time alone. Just last month, I decided it's time to start dating again. Now if I would only leave the house ...

  96. CHUBBY RAIN! by Wooden7Dummy · · Score: 1

    "GOT 'YA SUCKERS!"

  97. Bowfinger director's vision comes true by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Its raining aliens!! "Chubby Rain"!!!!!

  98. Inadequate definition... by zopf · · Score: 1

    Courtesy of Wikipedia:

    A conventional definition [of life]

    In biology, a life form has traditionally been considered to be a member of a population whose members can exhibit all the following phenomena at least once during their existence:

          1. Growth, full development, maturity

          2. Metabolism, consuming, transforming and storing energy/mass; growing by absorbing and reorganizing mass; excreting waste

          3. Motion, either moving itself, or having internal motion

          4. Reproduction, the ability of individuals to create entities that are similar to, but separate from, themselves

          5. Response to stimuli - the ability to measure properties of its surrounding environment, and act upon certain conditions. This property is also called homeostasis.

          6. Cells, a basic unit of reproduction

    As you'll note, each conventional characteristic of life is procedural or structural in nature; there is nothing discretely chemical. Therefore, neither water, nor DNA, nor RNA is necessary to constitute life. Your definition is incomplete.

    Also, please be careful to cite your information. You seem to have created your own definition of life, but then referred to it as some sort of universal knowledge without any citation as proof.

    --
    Did you see the pool? They flipped the bitch!
  99. Those aren't Extraterrestrial microbes.. by Sigg3.net · · Score: 0

    .. they are simply weather ballons. Everybody knows this.

    - Agent Smith

  100. Flying Spaghetti Monster by warith · · Score: 1

    Um, it's obviously spaghetti sauce bestowed upon us by the Flying Spaghetti Monster, spread into a fine paste by the vastness of space, and given motion by His Noodly Appendage.

  101. Charles Fort, Call Your Office by adavies42 · · Score: 1

    This story has been up two and a half days, and I'm the first one to mention Fort? You all suck!

    --
    Media that can be recorded and distributed can be recorded and distributed.
    -kfg
  102. Bad big bird pun by Valdrax · · Score: 1

    The article claims that about 50.000kg fell down. Now that is a heck of a turkey even by US standards. (How 50.000kg becomes 55tons is anyones guess)

    So what you mean to say is, "You can't stop. The roc can't stop the rock?"

    --
    If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
  103. Re:POLL for Single Slashdotters by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    29 year old virgin here.

    I wouldn't put it in terms of "achieve the unachievable", but yeah, it is good to accept your nature and situation. And there really is nothing wrong with being a virgin, despite what the general US culture will tell you.