Is mysterious 'red rain' first evidence of life in space? by Chris Benfield

Could this be the initial signs of life form on other planets.....The cells in the article can split, without having a fundamental DNA. Though not an expert in this matter, reading from the article started a lot of questions about our existence on this planet.

If what has been researched is true....this could be something. however, as they have said, in the article, it could be from a meteroide explosion in the air and it would be I think though to find the origin of the organism.

What do you think?
clic k

This was posted on the Guardian as a correction to your article:

In the article below, Dr Milton Wainwright was quoted as saying that red rain lacked DNA. Dr Wainwright has asked us to make clear that currently he has no view on whether red rain contains DNA and that it is physicist Godfrey Louis who is of that view.

observer.guardian.co.uk...

There goes consistency......:-) thanks for the information. I havnt heard much on this but is it possible to have alien life without DNA. What if they have something else instead of DNA? Is there any information? I do understand that we dnt have even proof of alien life and my questions are pretty baseless, but thought of asking if someone knew.

I think it could be a probability.

Technically, DNA isn't required for a cell's reproduction - it just carries the information necessary to do it.

A cell is like a machine that can make copies of itself - the DNA is the programming that allows it to do so.

Technically, if there was some other kind of naturally self-reproducing molecule or structure, it could in theory form more complex life forms. DNA is so good at what it does, though, because it allows a cell to do so many things since it has all the information in it. A cell without DNA may be limited to the extent it could evolve to because of lack of information storage (Error: Memory Overflow ), because of lack of "corrective programming" (and cell mutations would be too great to form into complex life that would suffer from a massive plague of cancers), or because it might not have the "code" to be able to perform more complex operations (DNA tells a cell how it should act in what kind of circumstance... some of those circumstances are pretty complex).

Still, I'd like to see what a second study to verify these claims says.

Here's another link.

Life as we know it is based on the DNA. This may not be the case with other life forms.

www.rediff.com...

Its a chance i looked in here before posting my new topic ... just learned tonight about the tons of red alien rain over Kerala in 2001?? Anyways according to the observer's article

There is a small bottle containing a red fluid on a shelf in Sheffield University's microbiology laboratory. The liquid looks cloudy and uninteresting. Yet, if one group of scientists is correct, the phial contains the first samples of extraterrestrial life isolated by researchers.

It's pretty clear. Now aliens with a different dna or a liquid that leaked from a meteorite , Dr Godfrey Louis is on something, just read that PDF.

This article is also interesting about Panspermia.

en.wikipedia.org...
it wasn't on tinwiki

Also www.world-science.net...

I'll keep an eye on that ..

Kalki,

Thankyou for the additional information.

The questions that rise due to this, if we give it a good read, is that,

a) The red rain phenomenon occured in a definate area at a time. If there was red rain in one specific area and if it was raining somewhere else is would be normal rain. Why?
b) As clearly explained sand could have risen from the earth and managed to get it way and hence rained as red rain. However they could confirm that it was no substance from earth
c) If it was a meteroide, and if it managed to enter the earths atmosphere and disintegrate, the effect should be imminent from a couple of days during the monsoon season. However the effect has been apparant for almost 2 months? Wouldnt particles as they are in a gaseous form, the molecular attraction between them being the least should be scattering into the atmosphere?
d) Thankyou for the great information on DNA. However this could be some sort of organism. The reason for me saying this because it is multiplying. To do so it needs energy. Mitochondria, provides this. Could there be something else hid within the structure of the cells, which we are missing?
e) I am not sure if anyone feel sick or felt any changes in them due to the rain? It is obviously some form of organism, there is nothing that i could find regarding health problems due to the red rain on the net?

I hope we can find answers for this?

kalki that x1000 pic in the lower left hand corner looks like a cell dividing could be or maybe just my $.02

Hmmm... the photo actually brings doubt to my mind rather than suppot. Those look like Red Blood Cells. On the 1000x magnification you can even see the raised "rim" of the cell wall on most of the cells there.




This could mean that it's a unique specimen of Red Blood Cell that can self-divide using an as-yet unknown process. The possibility of it being alien in origin still exists, but I think that image drastically declines it.

Mind you, that's an observation based soley on the look of things - like I said early, the full study plus confirmation studies from other sources need to be done.

Are we being invaded then??? if its not Human origin and possible metorite or what ever who knows possible begining of invasion.

It really remains 50/50 on the extra/interrestrial/exploded bats theories (seriously incase you didnt read, that was their best comeback "well er, maybe it was just a flock of bats that exploded in high altitude" until some conclusive studies are done.

Anyway i cant see if you mentioned, there was a sonic boom prior to the red rain event (a signature of a low meteor disintigration) That was another reason why the theory came to Dr. Louis in the first place.

Also from the photo (although im not an expert so you can correct me). Animal cells don't have cell walls. Only plant cells do. And these look as though they do. So perhaps just another piece of the riddle....

But regardless WHERE they came from, IF they turn out to be animal cells, developed without DNA, we will have to change everything we've stated as absolute about how life begins. If not DNA, what do they use to store and carry on data?

Likely it will simply turn out to be a hoax or a misinterpretation of data, but its fun isnt it?!

[edit on 22-3-2006 by Shadow88]

This is a popular subject, there are a number of active threads on this currently:

1. Alien cells found in rain? (most recently active)
   
2. Red Rain of Kerala
   
3. Red Rain in India Article
   

Please redirect to the most recent one.