Horizon - Alien Rain - BBC2 tonight (uk)

Horizon tonight BBC2 21:00 UK will be looking at the possibility that all life comes from 'Panspermia' cells that drift through space.

Clouds of alien life forms are sweeping through outer space and infecting planets with life – it may not be as far-fetched as it sounds.

The idea that life on Earth came from another planet has been around as a modern scientific theory since the 1960s when it was proposed by Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe. At the time they were ridiculed for their idea – known as panspermia. But now, with growing evidence, it's back in vogue and even being studied by NASA.

We meet the scientists on a mission to get to the bottom of the beginnings of life on Earth - from the team in Texas who are lovingly building a robotic submarine called DEPTHX to explore a moon of Jupiter, to Southern India where they are investigating a mysterious red rain which fell for two months in 2001. According to local scientist Godfrey Louis, the rain contains biological cells unlike any he had seen before – with no DNA and the ability to replicate at 300°C. Louis has come to the conclusion that the cells are extra-terrestrial in origin.

Source

There have been several thread on ATS about this in the past such as:
www.abovetopsecret.com...
www.abovetopsecret.com...

I would imagine however that there will be some pretty interesting new evidence presented tonight, such as in the quote above that they can replicate at 300°C.

Sorry not sure when this airing state side, but transcripts to the program will normally be available from the source I linked. I dont want to spoil the show though .

news.bbc.co.uk... - report on program.






[edit on 14/11/06 by Strodyn]

Nice 1 dude,didn`t get a paper today and TV usually sucks so i would have missed this!
Can`t wait.
I bet they mention that lichen that survived for a few days in space,and got back to earth alive.

Great info, would totally have missed it otherwise.

It kind of goes with my beliefs as to where we all started.

Definatly be watching

sure it makes sense, same with astaroids and comets,

i rember seeing a make up of a asteroid,not sure which one,may have been one they think is a kyperbelt object around saturn or jupiter and there was a green blob in the middle that was for organic matter,I was like hello is that not proof of et life?

ive just googled trying to find it with no joy.

Thanks for that Strodyn. It sounds very interesting. I'll definitely make sure I watch this. But who created the 'Panspermia' cells

[edit on 14-11-2006 by Xeros]

There is a parallel thread running in the Alien/UFO forum discussing that, lets keep the science here.

Mods if you need to close one make it this one....going to be more interesting in the other.

I wonder if they will cover the "Red Rain of Kerala"

Originally posted by Nygdan
I wonder if they will cover the "Red Rain of Kerala"

What's the status of this Red Rain stuff... the last I'd heard... not too long ago was that they didn't contain DNA, but had been observed to 'replicate.'

Has anyone analyzed the outer surface of these entities to determine precisely what they are composed of? Anyone know of any real science that's been done with these?

It is about the Red Rain tonight, I am hoping this being Horizon that there is some decent science involved.

Just Watched Horizon,

Intresting, But it focused too much on all the "Life can exist in really inhospitable places on earth" whilst important, "I GET THE MESSEGE!!!" its on all documentaries of this nature.

However what was intresting is they Found out that Microbes can survive the journey on a commet smashing into the earth, (which they reinacted in the lab)

as for the Red rain, Mr goddard???? Dident find DNA in the red rain samples but some other Microbioligists DID, so erm Did I watch that part right?

The conclusion was that its just as likley that Life could have arrived here on a commet as much as Life could have arouse from self constructing molicules in some Primordial Mud,

There was some Scientist BLowing Bubbles showing how the bubble is "self constructing" as akin to how the first Molicuels "self constructed" into the start of What ever the first stage of life may be on earth or somthing.

it was very drawn out like Horizon usually is and kept going over and over the same things,

Its like "YES I Know, just GET on with it"

Good though

[edit on 14-11-2006 by TrentReznor]

I have this on record. Sky plus Half way through and it looks interesting. One thing I noticed is the distinct and often prevalent and somewhat dissapointing ideology in the scientific communiy, that all is already known, so therefore it becomes an oxymoron to already biased views. This problem is a dissapointingly egotistical and regular occurance imo. I need to watch the rest though but, am I alone in this consideration? Looks fantastic so far though. Thanks again, or I would've missed it!

Originally posted by Xeros
This problem is a dissapointingly egotistical and regular occurance imo. I need to watch the rest though but, am I alone in this consideration?

Just because the scienific community doesn't accept all new theories doesn't mean it isn't open to new ideas. Many scientists featured in the programme seemed open to many possibilities, but they're not going to throw away old beliefs without concrete proof.

The programme was disappointing because it told us nothing. There may/may not be alien lifeforms...

The coolest part was the Hubble picture in 3D showing all the galaxies.

On the red rain conundrum; I don't know what caused it, but I'm sure I read about it being debunked ages ago. The scientist dimissed the bat theory because the rain lasted two monthes, so how is the comet theory a better explination? Surely all the comety material would have fallen as quickly as the bat material... so how come the 'comet material' hung in the air for two months? That scientist was laughing like an idiot...

A waste of an hour.

The first DNA test was not done very well. So someone else did another DNA test and, here's the really weird thing, they did find DNA, but it's not like anything else found here on earth, IOW, the DNA sequence is unheard of. Weird, huh? Also, the guy that did the first test, is a little flaky and doesn't have a very good scientific reputation, according to my biologist/virologist husband. He likes to bend the facts around to his theory, which is usually that everything is from outer space. However, this time he may have gotten lucky.

No DNA in the 'red rain' = it could well be alien because all life on earth contains DNA

DNA found in the 'red rain' = it could well be alien because if all life on earth has DNA then most alien life probably has DNA too



More to the point though, the programmed disappointed me by not even asking, yet alone answering, the most obvious question of all: if life originated as a result of microbes arriving on Earth from comets, how did those microbes get on the comets in the first place??????

It was probably the worst 'Horizon' yet from a science point of view.

Appalling suppositions. Very disappointed.

Originally posted by kallikak
but had been observed to 'replicate.'

Replication has not been demonstrated. Some of the objects are 'doubled', as if they were splitting, and then stopped, i beleive.

Has anyone analyzed the outer surface of these entities to determine precisely what they are composed of?

I haven't heard of any composition studies. There have been electron microscope scans that show that they have structure, the center is featureless (to the electron microscope anyway), the edges are composed of thin laminated layers

Anyone know of any real science that's been done with these?

Oh there definitly has been serious research done on them. No one has been able to properly identify them or their source. THe threads in that link above has some research results and links to papers.

trentreznor
"Life can exist in really inhospitable places on earth" whilst important, "I GET THE MESSEGE!!!" its on all documentaries of this nature.

The problem is, its the only information we have.

Dident find DNA in the red rain samples but some other Microbioligists DID

Huh? Who?

xeros
the distinct and often prevalent and somewhat dissapointing ideology in the scientific communiy, that all is already known, so therefore it becomes an oxymoron to already biased views. T

Can you give an example? Most scientists tend to recognize that life, as it arose through chemical processes, can, and almost has to, exist on other planets. Scientists are supposed to be extremely skeptical and critical of all ideas. There simply isn't much good information out there about non-earth life. The red rain phenomenon is a good example. Its odd, but some people are uncritically jumping on these things as being living organisms (which simply hasn't been shown at all), and as being from outside of earth (which hasn't been shown either).

byhiniur
The programme was disappointing because it told us nothing. There may/may not be alien lifeforms

That about sums up the understanding at this point.
The show could've gotten into (and I didn't see it, so heck maybe it did) things like the chemistry of autocatalytic rna, chemical super-cycles, etc. But people would turn off a programme about theoretical chemistry. Anything beyond that level is wild speculation, really.

so how come the 'comet material' hung in the air for two months? That scientist was laughing like an idiot...

Alright, so its not from a comet. That hardly identifies its source or what it actually is. No one has been able to say where these things came from nor what they are.
The scientist is right to reject the idea that it came from a comet. But that isn't a debunking of these things.

forest lady
someone else did another DNA test and, here's the really weird thing, they did find DNA, but it's not like anything else found here on earth, IOW, the DNA sequence is unheard of. Weird, huh

Huh? Really? Who did the tests? It doesn't matter if the sequence is unheard of, we haven't seen every peice of DNA. This is interesting, does anyone know the researcher that did this?

essan
if life originated as a result of microbes arriving on Earth from comets, how did those microbes get on the comets in the first place

We do know that complex organic molecules can form in space. Of course, thats a giagantic leap from that to 'life can form in space'. But recall, life, really, in its most basic form, is going to be something like a chemical that catylizes the formation of copies of itself. Doesn't have to be a gene or dna or rna or anything like that. If it could happen in a pools of water on earth, why couldn't it happen in a ball of ice and chemicals in space?
Of course, we'd have to know more details to be able to really answer that.

What used to be so great about Horizon Nygdan was that it would actually go into some fairly complex issues such as theoretical chemistry, yet manage to explain those issues to the layman.

What really disappointed me was there was no explanation of what they were proposing, but even more disappointing, explanations they were suggesting to rule out other possible reasons, could be applied exactly to their theories.......even me as the layman could see that. Atrocious!

Very very disappointed in the quality of this once great program. Lets hope this is just a one off production error. I will be writing to the beeb about this.

www.bbc.co.uk... is a link for anyone else who feels the same.

[edit on 15/11/06 by Strodyn]

It was that bad? A Horizons episode!?! My god, has it fallen as far as New Scientist?

Originally posted by Nygdan

so how come the 'comet material' hung in the air for two months? That scientist was laughing like an idiot...

Alright, so its not from a comet. That hardly identifies its source or what it actually is. No one has been able to say where these things came from nor what they are.
The scientist is right to reject the idea that it came from a comet. But that isn't a debunking of these things.

I was just pointing out the ignorance of the scientist who stated the bat theory was laughable.

Originally posted by Strodyn
What used to be so great about Horizon Nygdan was that it would actually go into some fairly complex issues such as theoretical chemistry, yet manage to explain those issues to the layman.

Clearly, that cannot be allowed. WEe can't have people walking around getting educated AND thinking!