# If this guy's an oddball, at least he's an intriguing one. Red Rain & Alien Microbes. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 6, 2006, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-this-guys-an-oddball-at-least-hes-an-intriguing-one-red-rain-alien-microbes/347251 "2006-03-06T15:09:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-this-guys-an-oddball-at-least-hes-an-intriguing-one-red-rain-alien-microbes/347251/1 "2006-03-06T15:09:35Z")
> **[Red rain could prove that aliens have landed](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2006/mar/05/spaceexploration.theobserver)** > > The following correction was printed in the Observer's For the record column, Sunday March 12 2006 > [@](#): > > 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. Just the usual kooks? Hardly. > [@](#): > > Investigations suggested the rain was red because winds had swept up dust from Arabia and dumped it on Kerala. But Godfrey Louis, a physicist at Mahatma Gandhi University in Kottayam, after gathering samples left over from the rains, concluded this was nonsense. ‘If you look at these particles under a microscope, you can see they are not dust, they have a clear biological appearance.’ Instead Louis decided that the rain was made up of bacteria-like material that had been swept to Earth from a passing comet. In short, it rained aliens over India during the summer of 2001. Well, maybe not, but… > [@](#): > > Milton Wainwright, a microbiologist at Sheffield, is now testing samples of Kerala’s red rain. ‘It is too early to say what’s in the phial,’ he said. ‘But it is certainly not dust. Nor is there any DNA there, but then alien bacteria would not necessarily contain DNA.’ This red rain fell often over a 2 month period. It seems at least odd enough to be worth investigating. ---
**Author:** ![wayward](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a87d85/32.png) [@wayward](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wayward)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-this-guys-an-oddball-at-least-hes-an-intriguing-one-red-rain-alien-microbes/347251/2 "2006-03-06T15:46:42Z")
I read the same story in _New Scientist_ just the other day, which isn’t the sort of magazine to publish just any old crackpot theory. One of the possibilities that they mention is that it could be mammalian red blood cells. The colour, the lack of DNA, and apparently even the shape of the cells all point to that but then there’s still the mystery of why it would rain blood for two months. Their best suggestion is a meteor burst inside or close to a flock of bats but that seems somewhat unlikely. Then there’s the claim that under certain conditions, the cells multiply, which blood cells certainly don’t… Looks like a story worth watching, wahtever happens. ---
**Author:** ![George\_Kaplin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3e96dc/32.png) [@George\_Kaplin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/George_Kaplin)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-this-guys-an-oddball-at-least-hes-an-intriguing-one-red-rain-alien-microbes/347251/3 "2006-03-06T16:19:15Z")
It’s an intriguing story, definitely. I don’t really buy the prevailing theory, that a meteor exploded within a flock of bats/birds. After all, no-one reported finding any wings or anything. Will keep my eye on it, definitely. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-this-guys-an-oddball-at-least-hes-an-intriguing-one-red-rain-alien-microbes/347251/4 "2006-03-06T16:26:16Z")
If I’m not wrong this is the old “panspermia” theory of Svante Ahhrenius. he theorized that the earth is continually receiving a 'rain" of single celled life forms from comets, costmic dust, meterites, etc. As far as i know, this theory has’nt much credibilioty. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-this-guys-an-oddball-at-least-hes-an-intriguing-one-red-rain-alien-microbes/347251/5 "2006-03-06T16:30:15Z")
I, for one, welcome our new non-DNA’ed, panspermia comet-seeded, alien bacteria overlords. Well, _somebody_ had to say it. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-this-guys-an-oddball-at-least-hes-an-intriguing-one-red-rain-alien-microbes/347251/6 "2006-03-06T17:16:50Z")
> [@BMalion](#): > > I, for one, welcome our new non-DNA’ed, panspermia comet-seeded, alien bacteria overlords. But, did they Bring Pie? ---
**Author:** ![Greenback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/2bfe46/32.png) [@Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greenback)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-this-guys-an-oddball-at-least-hes-an-intriguing-one-red-rain-alien-microbes/347251/7 "2006-03-06T17:21:36Z")
This is what happens when aliens get ahold of our defense plans. It was written nearly a century ago but Hollywood had to broadcast it through space: “nanner nanner nanner. Aliens can’t get us because we have microbes” Now the microbe is out of the comet and we are the ones to be infected. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-this-guys-an-oddball-at-least-hes-an-intriguing-one-red-rain-alien-microbes/347251/8 "2006-03-06T19:07:11Z")
watch the skies… KEEP WATCHING THE SKIES!