Godfrey Louis

Growth and replication of red rain cells at 121°C and their red fluorescence

We have shown that the red cells found in the Red Rain (which fell on Kerala, India, in 2001) survive and grow after incubation for periods of up to two hours at 121°C . Under these conditions daughter cells appear within the original mother cells and the number of cells in the samples increases with length of exposure to 121°C. No such increase in cells occurs at room temperature, suggesting that the increase in daughter cells is brought about by exposure of the Red Rain cells to high temperatures. This is an independent confirmation of results reported earlier by two of the present authors, claiming that the cells can replicate under high pressure at temperatures upto 300°C. The flourescence behaviour of the red cells is shown to be in remarkable correspondence with the extended red emission observed in the Red Rectagle planetary nebula and other galactic and extragalactic dust clouds, suggesting, though not proving an extraterrestrial origin.

Unusual autofluorescence characteristic of cultured red-rain cells

The red cells found in the red rain in Kerala, India are now considered as a possible case of extraterrestrial life form. These cells can undergo rapid replication even at an extreme high temperature of 300 deg C. They can also be cultured in diverse unconventional chemical substrates. The molecular composition of these cells is yet to be identified. This paper reports the unusual autofluorescence characteristic of the cultured red rain cells. A spectrofluorimetric study has been performed to investigate this, which shows a systematic shift of the fluorescence emission peak wavelength as the excitation wavelength is increased. Conventional biomolecules are not known to have this property. Details of this investigation and the results are discussed.

Anisotropy in elastic properties of lithium sodium sulphate hexahydrate single crystal—An ultrasonic study

The double sulfate family of (ABSO4) where A and B are alkali metal cations, is the object of great interest owing to the complexity and richness of its sequence of phase transition induced by temperature variation. A new sulfate salt characterized by the presence of water molecule in the unit cell with the chemical formula, Li2Na3(SO4)2·6H2O (LSSW), was obtained. The ultrasonic velocity measurement was done with pulse echo overlap technique [PEO]. All the six second order elastic stiffness constants, C11  =  C22, C33, C44  =  C55, C12, C14 and C13  =  C23, are reported for the first time. The anisotropy in the elastic properties of the crystal are well explained by the pictorial representation of the surface plots of phase velocity, slowness, Young’s modulus and linear compressibility in a–b and a–c planes.

Growth characteristics of red rain microbes at temperatures below 100 °C

The red rain microbes, which caused red rain phenomenon in Kerala, India, exhibit many characteristics much different from conventional microorganisms. Previous study indicates that these microbes are possibly of extraterrestrial origin. Their ability to multiply at extreme high temperature of 300°C and the unusual autofluorescence of their biomolecules are some of their extraordinary properties. Their molecular composition is yet to be identified. In this paper we report the growth pattern of these novel microbes at temperatures below 100°C as a minimal approach to show their biological nature. Automated turbidity measurement of the cell culture indicate standard microbial growth curve. Increase in the cell population is faster at higher temperatures. Details of this investigation and results are discussed.

Cause of Cambrian Explosion - Terrestrial or Cosmic?

We review the salient evidence consistent with or predicted by the Hoyle-Wickramasinghe (H-W) thesis of Cometary (Cosmic) Biology. Much of this physical and biological evidence is multifactorial. One particular focus are the recent studies which date the emergence of the complex retroviruses of vertebrate lines at or just before the Cambrian Explosion of ∼500 Ma. Such viruses are known to be plausibly associated with major evolutionary genomic processes. We believe this coincidence is not fortuitous but is consistent with a key prediction of H-W theory whereby major extinction-diversification evolutionary boundaries coincide with virus-bearing cometary-bolide bombardment events. A second focus is the remarkable evolution of intelligent complexity (Cephalopods) culminating in the emergence of the Octopus. A third focus concerns the micro-organism fossil evidence contained within meteorites as well as the detection in the upper atmosphere of apparent incoming life-bearing particles from space. In our view the totality of the multifactorial data and critical analyses assembled by Fred Hoyle, Chandra Wickramasinghe and their many colleagues since the 1960s leads to a very plausible conclusion - life may have been seeded here on Earth by life-bearing comets as soon as conditions on Earth allowed it to flourish (about or just before 4.1 Billion years ago); and living organisms such as space-resistant and space-hardy bacteria, viruses, more complex eukaryotic cells, fertilised ova and seeds have been continuously delivered ever since to Earth so being one important driver of further terrestrial evolution which has resulted in considerable genetic diversity and which has led to the emergence of mankind.

Elastic Anomalies in LiK0.9Na0.1 SO4 Single Crystal

Phase transition studies of sodium doped Lithium potassium sulphate, Li K 0.9 Na 0.1 SO 4 , crystal by ultrasonic Pulse Echo Overlap [PEO] technique are reported for the first time. The crystal shows pyroelectric, ferroelectric and electro optic properties. It is simultaneously ferroelastic and superionic. This study reported elastic properties and checked the effect of doping on suspected phase transition around 333 K as reported by Brillouin and thermal expansion studies. The transverse modes C 44 and C 66 show elastic anomalies around 333 K.

Modification of opto-electronic properties of ZnO by incorporating metallic tin for buffer layer in thin film solar cells

In this report, the effect of incorporation of metallic tin (Sn) on opto-electronic properties of ZnO thin films is presented. ZnO thin films were deposited through ‘automated chemical spray pyrolysis’ (CSP) technique; later different quantities of ‘Sn’ were evaporated on it and subsequently annealed. Vacuum annealing showed a positive effect on crystallinity of films. Creation of sub band gap levels due to ‘Sn’ diffusion was evident from the absorption and PL spectra. The tin incorporated films showed good photo response in visible region. Tin incorporated ZnO thin films seem to satisfy the desirable criteria for buffer layer in thin film solar cells.

Microhardness studies of sulfamic acid single crystal

Vickers microhardness study of (100), (010) and (001) faces of a non-linear optical crystal sulfamic acid have been reported. Single crystals of sulfamic acid have been grown by slow evaporation method. The load dependence of the Vickers microhardness of sulfamic acid crystal were investigated and analyzed from the stand point of various theoretical models. Crystal samples in a, b and c-axes exhibit reverse indentation effect which is best described by Meyers law, Hays-Kendalls approach and proportional specimen resistance (PSR) models. The negative values of load dependent quantities in Hays-Kendalls approach and PSR model suggest that the origin of indentation size effect is associated with the process of relaxation of indentation stresses.

Autofluorescence characteristics of the red rain cells

Red rain cells are the microscopic biological cells which appear mixed in rain water in large quantity imparting visibly red color to the rain water in a strange event called red rain phenomenon. Our study of this phenomenon which happened in Kerala, India in 2001 has shown that the origin of these cells is possibly extraterrestrial. These cells are not so far successfully identified as any organism known on earth. The cells have unusual property like ability to reproduce at extreme high temperature and the colorless daughter cells cultured from the red cells show unusual autofluorescence characteristics. In this paper we report the autofluorescence characteristics of the original red rain cells. High resolution fluorescence microscopy is employed to study the fluorescence images of the cells under UV-Visible excitation. The results are discussed.