Recreation Commons - 007teenth Floor: The Isle of Doom

[Illuminatus]

Netflash!

Hall of Fame editor Darkcloud of the Apolyton Staff has authorized a secret project, codenamed Apolytoners' Hall of Fame: December 2005 .


(vote for Darsnan you lazy drones - we'll need 10-15 more votes to get him in this round )

[Darsnan]

Nobody has noticed Darsnan sitting down in the corner by himself. Several (OK, many! ) glasses lay about him, some empty, others half filled, while other glasses are laying over on their side. Darsnan's head is in his hands, shaking slowly from side to side. Darsnan mutters to no one in particular, "it wasn't supposed to be like this. All we had to do was transport one container of xenofungus down safely to Earth. One container - thats it! But no! The stupid Drones just had to see what the Big Red Button did, and during re-entry at that! Argh! This is gonna be much tougher to explain than the Exxon Valdez!

As bizarre as it may seem, the sample jars brimming with cloudy, reddish rainwater in Godfrey Louis's laboratory in southern India may hold, well, aliens.

In April, Louis, a solid-state physicist at Mahatma Gandhi University, published a paper in the prestigious peer-reviewed journal Astrophysics and Space Science in which he hypothesizes that the samples -- water taken from the mysterious blood-colored showers that fell sporadically across Louis's home state of Kerala in the summer of 2001 -- contain microbes from outer space.

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 degrees Fahrenheit . (The known upper limit for life in water is about 250 degrees Fahrenheit .)

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.

Last winter, Louis sent some of his samples to astronomer Chandra Wickramasinghe and his colleagues at Cardiff University in Wales, who are now attempting to replicate his experiments; Wickramasinghe expects to publish his initial findings later this year.

Meanwhile, more down-to-earth theories abound. One Indian government investigation conducted in 2001 lays blame for what some have called the "blood rains" on algae.

Other theories have implicated fungal spores, red dust swept up from the Arabian peninsula, even a fine mist of blood cells produced by a meteor striking a high-flying flock of bats.

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."

Louis and Wickramasinghe are planning further experiments to test the cells for specific carbon isotopes. If the results fall outside the norms for life on Earth, it would be powerful new evidence for Louis's idea, of which even Louis himself remains skeptical.

Its just a good thing that there were no viable mindworm larvae in that container!

At least I think there weren't.....

[Mead]

Mead will have whatever is cold and good.

[Micha]

/me continues pretending to be cryo-sleeping. (beat that! 67% verbs! )

[laurentius]

Hey its alright I can take that.

/me walks past the silent inactivated cyborg and the cryosleeping human customers.

Yeah Herc it seems this place has been abandoned for a while. Lets see if I can get the beer tabs working

/me snatches empty pint from a cyborg that has apparently run out of backup power and has thus shutdown for good. The bars floor spins slowly revealing the magnificient view to the space. The quiet humming of the xenobeer refrigeraters in the backgrounds adds to the eerie feeling of the place.

I dont see a bartender here so I guess we have to help ourselves.

/me blows the dust off the pint and pulls the tab.

Hey its working! At least the stuff is black. Here you go mate.

[Hercules]

Nope I only came here because I noticed someone visited.

While I am here I'll have a black stuff. thank you.

Darn I suppose I'll have to get it myself.

[laurentius]

@ being Harvey Keitel. Thats a good one Illuminatus.

Anyone had a drink in a while?

/me orders xenoweisers for everyone

[laurentius]

The Bar with the Good stuff

Because thats what RecCommons is.

[Kataphraktoi]

i wouldnt be interested in attending if they used the grill out my back door and fried hamburgers(well maybe tell me what kindof burgers they are)

goes back to morrowwind

[PJayTycy]

I'd love to go to the ApolyCon to talk to Firaxis about the C4:AC mod (and civ4 modding in general), but it would cost me too much (about 1000 € per person for flying alone). With the apolycon fee and the hotel fee added, that's about 1500€.

[Illuminatus]

Inquiry:

Does anyone intend to attend ApolyCon?

[Illuminatus]

So did anybody try playing Galactic Civilizations II: The Dread Lords? What do you think about potential for a GalCiv2 demogame?

[Kataphraktoi]

[GeoModder]

Yeah, the captain's temper is reknown.

[Illuminatus]

binTravkin in action