[meteorite-list] RED RAIN IN INDIA

From: Sterling K. Webb <sterling_k_webb_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri Mar 10 03:38:49 2006
Message-ID: <006501c6441e$07bbbe90$a122e146_at_ATARIENGINE>

Hi,

    Many interesting items about the red rain.
Mark Ford mentioned that the article in the
New Scientist magazine suggested bat blood,
presumably from large flights of bats being struck
by planes or otherwise aerially injured. So, I 've
been researching bat's blood. (These things take
you odd places, don't they?)

    The red blood cells of mammals are without
DNA, since they are not intended to reproduce.
Red blood cells are generated in the bones,
released to the blood stream, live a short life,
and die. Hence, no DNA nor cell nucleus.
The appearance of the "alien cells" in the
SEM microphotographs greatly resemble
mammalian red blood cells.

    Bat blood red cells are somewhat unique
among mammalian red cells. Human red cells
have a life span measured in weeks, not months
or years. Bat red cells are very long-lived, long
enough, in fact, that we are not sure how long
they live.

    The blood of bats has the highest known
concentration of red cells of any mammal; their
blood is wall-to-wall red cells. Moreover, the
chemical composition of the bat red cell is very
high in lipids, far more fatty than any other
mammal's.

    This facts explain many of the characteristics
of the "alien cells." The high lipid content and
long lived cells explain how they can remain
undecayed and stably preserved for a long period
since they were collected. Several papers on bat
blood remarked on how "self-preservative" it was.

    The high density of red blood cells in bat blood
explains how a "red rain" would seem to consist of
nothing but these cells, with little or no other organic
debris being present. I would expect that animal
and insect scavengers would have eliminated any
little bat scraps before the "red rain" was collected.

    As far as their appearance, the following paper:
http://www.genomesize.com/rgregory/reprints/MammalRBC.pdf
has microphotos of bat eryhtrocytes (and cat and
human). The resemblance to the microphotographs
of the "alien cells" is striking. The "thick walls," for
example, are an artifact of squashing the thick rims
of the red cells flat while making the slides. You see
the same "thick walls" in all the red cells shown.

    The bat cells are more irregular in shape than
the cat and human cells, like the "aliens." Their size
corresponds to the size of bat erythrocytes. I don't
find anything that doesn't fit. Personally, I'm pretty well
convinced that's what the "aliens" are: murdered bats.
Helicopters? Jet intakes?

    Spores of any kind are pretty much out of the
question since the spores of all sporulating life are a
DNA delivery system, and these "aliens" have no
DNA. I'm afraid the only aliens we could work into
this picture would be aliens who slaughter bats in
large numbers for sport.


Sterling K. Webb
Received on Fri 10 Mar 2006 03:38:38 AM PST