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Red rain fantasies

• 01 April 2006
• Milton Wainwright
• Magazine issue 2545

There appears to be an increasing tendency among scientists to come up with wild explanations when asked by the press to comment on unusual, novel phenomena. A good example is provided by comments about the recent Indian red rain phenomenon (4 March, p 34).

Red rain is morphologically similar to fungal spores or algae, as I have recently been able to confirm by microscope analysis of samples. There is no evidence that I am aware of to support suggestions that red rain is dust, sand, fat globules or blood.

From Gareth Jones

So Godfrey Louis rules out all possibilities apart from an extraterrestrial source for the red rain over India. Most meteorologists would be surprised to hear that over the course of two months, particles settling out of the upper atmosphere from a meteor airburst would be confined to such a small area.

For the upper atmosphere winds to not ...