ANALYSIS OF RED RAIN OF KERALA
Samples of a red rain that fell across the state of Kerala in India
in July-August 2001 have been found to contain microscopic red cells
(Louis and Kumar, 2006) of unknown origin. The early fall was associated
with the 'thunder' and flash of a large meteor. They report that
the cells appear to be very unusual in lacking a nucleus and DNA.
Dr. Godfrey Louis kindly supplied us with a sample of this material
for independent investigation in Cardiff.
High resolution electron microscopy has revealed
internal structures as well as evidence of a replication cycle not
commonly found in either bacteria or yeasts. These images are of
thin cell slices viewed in the transmission electron microscope.
The first (above) shows three cells around 3 micrometres
in diameter, with thick cell walls and a variety of nanostructures
within a membrane, but with no identifiable nucleus. Apparent holes
in the cell wall are real. The cell on the right has larger holes
and may have lost its cytoplasm.
The second picture shows a cell with shrunken membrane
containing 'daughters' - two have well-defined cell walls while
the third structure may be a further daughter in the process of
development.
The latter picture (scale bar is 300 nanometres)
shows the full resolution of that pictured in New Scientist
magazine of 1st April 2006 (No. 2545, p.12; www.newscientist.com)
with the caption "Does it look alien to you?". New
Scientist letters have also carried various suggestions for
known terrestrial micro-organisms - these pictures should stimulate
further ideas! (Copyright on pictures - reproduction
is permitted providing the acknowledgement is included - source:
CCAB, Cardiff University.)
Further work in progress has yeilded positive
for DNA using DAPI staining in the cells and daughters. However,
this identification is not yet fully confirmed, and might be considered
equivocal. We hope to pursue our efforts in extracting DNA (if it
exists), amplifying it and carrying out genetic sequencing, but
his work takes time.
References
Godfrey Louis, A. Santhosh Kumar: The red rain phenomenon
of Kerala and its possible extraterrestrial origin, Astrophysics
& Space Sci. (in press 2006),Preprint
on line
Godfrey Louis, A. Santhosh Kumar: Cometary panspermia
explains the red rain of Kerala ( 2003) ,Preprint
on line
http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0310120.
Persons associated with this work
Cardiff University: N.C. Wickramasinghe,
N. Miyake, S.Al-Mufti, M.K.Wallis (CCAB), A.C. Hann (Biosci. EM
Lab), D. Lloyd, S.K. Sheppard (Microbiology group)
Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala. India:
G. Louis and S. Kumar
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