They Walk Among Us (Well, bit too small to walk actually...)

[Azisien]

I heard a short snippet of an interview of Dr. Godfrey Louis on CBC Radio (Canadian National radio station). Really fast synopsis:

In 2001 in a particular region of India, a mysterious red rain started to fall, and continued to for quite some time. There are a number of theories to explain to phenomenon, though by far the most interesting is Louis's: Extraterrestrial bacteria, arriving on Earth via a meteorite. The red-stained bacteria were dispersed in the upper atmosphere when the meteorite descended, and mixed with the clouds and rain to form the red rain.

Sounds crazy, but that is indeed how the theory of panspermia pans out. More quick definitions for the uninformed:

Panspermia: One of the theories on the origins of life, such that the Earth was 'seeded' by living organisms from outer space (via a comet, asteroid, what have you).

Just to give another perspective, another (probably rather popular) theory on the origins of life on Earth is abiogenesis.

Abiogenesis: In a nutshell, that the simple chemistry of nonliving organic materials eventually turned into the notably more complex chemistry of life. The Earth was in pretty good position in terms of driving a lot of chemistry to happen 4 billion years ago, after it had cooled down sufficiently.

For the sake of some scientific objectivity, there are down-to-earth (I <3 puns!) other explanations:
1) Red algae
2) Fungal spores
3) Swept up dust from Arabian Peninsula
4) Meteorite striking a flock of high flying bats, the red fluid being their blood (coughbullshitcough)
And of course 5) Extraterrestrial bacteria, arriving via a meteorite.

There is some interesting, albeit somewhat circumstancial, evidence supporting Dr. Louis's hypothesis, and the circumstances also don't seem right for some of the "conventional" explanations. More synopsis:
-If it was life from Earth, especially something like algae, it would have plentiful amounts of DNA. So far as they know at this point, the sampled fluid contains no DNA.
-The "organisms" appear to replicate via budding, and appear to have "membranes," I've not heard of fungal spores with this capability (and still lacking DNA), and unless it's magical Arabian dust...
-Red blood cells do not replicate in this fashion, and would not survive in this medium (water/air). The odds of a meteor hitting a flock of bats is about as stretched as aliens too...
-An analysis of the fluid indicates a chemical composition similar to biological conditions (mostly carbon, oxygen, some sodium and iron)
-A sonic boom blew out windows in the area of India where the rain fell just before the rain fell, a meteorite crash was indeed plausible.

Further reviews and studies are currently underway by scientists in the UK. This TOTALLY tickles my scientific and geeky sci-fi imagination! I mean, I'm very skeptical of it, apparently Louis is too, but he was quoted saying "I wish there was a simpler explanation, but I can't find one." Even if the odd compounds in the fluid WERE terrestrial somehow, it still might prove very interesting for the field of biology.

Thoughts?

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Readings!

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science...cbccdrcrd.html
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world...723913,00.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_rain_in_Kerala
(More Pictures) http://www.curdrice.com/ranga/red_rain.html