Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Alien Bacteria May Have Landed in India

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the quite-the-little-travelers dept.

coastal984 writes "CNN & Popular Science are reporting that a scientist in India believes he may have discovered alien life in water collected from a unusually colored rainstorm. From the article: 'So how to explain them? Louis speculates that the particles could be extraterrestrial bacteria adapted to the harsh conditions of space and that the microbes hitched a ride on a comet or meteorite that later broke apart in the upper atmosphere and mixed with rain clouds above India.'"

14 of 116 comments (clear)

  1. Great... by 0311 · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...now even bacteria are being outsourced to India.

  2. Sorry, this is not news by Aging_Newbie · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This story has been surfacing periodically since

    "blood-colored showers that fell sporadically across Louis's home state of Kerala in the summer of 2001"

    but it never seems to reach a conclusion. Precisely why the sample has not been distributed to a variety of scientists continues to amaze me. I would think it would not take too long for a group of scientists to qualify or reject his hypothesis.

    Panspermia is not a bad hypothesis but lack of rigor in evaluating it does little for its credibility.

    1. Re:Sorry, this is not news by LionMage · · Score: 4, Interesting

      That's assuming there's any DNA to find. There are many self-replicating molecules in the universe, of which DNA is one kind. If researchers don't find DNA, then the next logical step IMHO is to find evidence of any other self-replicating molecules present inside these "cells."

      Preliminary tests don't seem to indicate the presence of DNA. This shouldn't be the end of the inquiry. Furthermore, repeated testing for the presence of DNA is only so useful; yes, it's good to independently verify results, but after you're satisfied that something isn't there, it's time to find out what is there.

  3. Rainbows... by talkingpaperclip · · Score: 3, Funny

    "...may have discovered alien life in water collected from a unusually colored rainstorm..."

    Last time I checked it was a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, not alien bacteria.

  4. red rain in russia by prurientknave · · Score: 3, Funny

    there was actually another report of red rain in russia two weeks ago. No mention of alien bacteria though.

  5. Popular Science article is rather sparse... by TripMaster+Monkey · · Score: 3, Informative


    Much more detail about this phenomenon can be found here and here.

    --
    ____

    ~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey

  6. But certainly by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Funny

    Couldn't come to the US, fearing they might be considered illegal aliens.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  7. War Of The Worlds in reverse? by objekt · · Score: 4, Funny

    H.G. Wells was wrong! They aren't going to be killed by bacteria--THEY *ARE* BACTERIA!

    --
    -- Boycott Shell
    1. Re:War Of The Worlds in reverse? by maniac/dev/null · · Score: 4, Funny

      Does this mean they can only be stopped by large, terrible war machines?

  8. Continuation of earlier /. stories... by GillBates0 · · Score: 3, Informative
    It should be noted (atleast in the new Slashdot "Related Story" section) that this is a continuation of these two earlier stories published on /. earlier this year.

    It would also be fruitful to mention that that Google turns up these stories with the most obvious of keywords: alien rain India site:slashdot.org.

    --
    An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
  9. Ahh yes, "popular" science.... by argStyopa · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ..more like "hysterically overblown science with little basis for their hyperbole but it sounds pretty cool..." ie the Weekly World News of Science.

    When you consider that JUST in ONE LAKE (Yellowstone Lake) in a heavily-studied US national park: "...One park biodiversity expert believes that 99% of the park's microbes and 75% of its invertebrates remain undiscovered.", I guess I'd assume that these strange little structures are Earth-generated, before I'd start reaching to outer space for explanations of their origin.

    --
    -Styopa
  10. Re:WTH Is Going On Here? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    If you read the article, it says even the scientist himself is skeptical of the idea. I think he is just throwing it out as a possibility, and it's being exaggerated by the reporters, as it makes for an interesting headline.

  11. They were algae spores by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Wikipedia article:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_rain_of_Kerala

  12. Presigious? by CheshireCatCO · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The article claims that the study was published in the "presigious" journal, Astrophysics and Space Science. I'm an astronomer and I've never heard of it. And yes, this does matter: a major find like ET life will have journals like Science and Nature tripping over themselves to publish it. Every step down from there is an indiciation that someone didn't think that the research was reasonable. Of course, the fact that this is a solid-state physicist who published this and not, say, a biologist is disturbing, too.

    Also, I'm going to be a bit junior-high here and point out that "Astrophysics and Space Science" has a very unfortunate acronym and must be difficult to cite with its abbreviation.