RED RAIN

“Red rain is coming down
Red rain
Red rain is pouring down
pouring down all over me

“I am standing up at the water's edge in my dream
I cannot make a single sound as you scream
it can't be that cold, the ground is still warm to touch
this place is so quiet, sensing that storm”

– Peter Gabriel, Red Rain

In 2001, life rained down upon an obscure province in India. Strange life. Life shorn of that double and single helix of DNA and RNA.

It is more common than most think, that strangeness should fall from the sky.

Fish have been known to rain along with other animals, including toads, frogs, or even jellyfish.

It was not blood (though the Forteans have no doubt a few theories of their own): locals in Kerala reported a thunderous clap; “followed by groves of trees shedding shriveled grey "burnt" leaves. Shriveled leaves and the disappearance and sudden formation of wells were also reported around the same time in the area.

The coloration of the rain was due to red particles in suspension in the rainwater, and when it fell, the red rain was at times as strongly colored as blood. It typically fell over small areas, no more than a few square kilometres in size, and was sometimes so localised that normal rain could be falling just a few metres away from red rain. Red rainfalls typically lasted less than 20 minutes.”

How utterly bizarre. Theories abounded, from algae spores to dust from Arabia, even as far-fetched as a meteor striking a large flock of bats (large flocks are common enough in India, enough so that they darken the sunset sky on occasion – but three months of this? So localized?).

Closer inspection yielded some startling evidence. Despite the Wikipedia entry that proclaims that the matter contained was algae/fungus (trentepohlia), the Popular Science article posits:

“Specifically, Louis has isolated strange, thick-walled, red-tinted cell-like structures about 10 microns in size. Stranger still, dozens of his experiments suggest that the particles may lack DNA yet still reproduce plentifully, even in water superheated to nearly 600˚F. (The known upper limit for life in water is about 250˚F.) 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. If his theory proves correct, the cells would be the first confirmed evidence of alien life and, as such, could yield tantalizing new clues to the origins of life on Earth.

“Louis and his colleagues dismiss all these theories, pointing to the fact that both algae and fungus possess DNA and that blood cells have thin walls and die quickly when exposed to water and air. More important, they argue, blood cells don’t replicate. “We’ve already got some stunning pictures—transmission electron micrographs—of these cells sliced in the middle,” Wickramasinghe says. “We see them budding, with little daughter cells inside the big cells.

“Louis’s theory holds special appeal for Wickramasinghe. A quarter of a century ago, he co-authored the modern theory of panspermia, which posits that bacteria-riddled space rocks seeded life on Earth. “If it’s true that life was introduced by comets four billion years ago,” the astronomer says, “one would expect that microorganisms are still injected into our environment from time to time. This could be one of those events.”

“The next significant step, explains University of Sheffield microbiologist Milton Wainwright, who is part of another British team now studying Louis’s samples, is to confirm whether the cells truly lack DNA. So far, one preliminary DNA test has come back positive.“Life as we know it must contain DNA, or it’s not life,” he says. “But even if this organism proves to be an anomaly, the absence of DNA wouldn’t necessarily mean it’s extraterrestrial.”

Six years hence, and still so much speculation. It’s a given that it is difficult at best to ascertain an extraterrestrial origin due to contamination on entrance into our atmosphere. Such an item would have to (directly/indirectly) conflict with organized structures we already know are in place.

So, we are back to where we started, full circle. A thunderclap, and three months worth of strange, red rain, containing organisms no one can agree upon.

However, when in Kerala, I’d advise you drink bottled water.

Till the next post, then.