No really...it did:

> Nearly 50 tons of mysterious red particles showered
> India in 2001. Now the race is on to figure out what
> the heck they are.

One physicist has found "strange, thick-walled, red-tinted cell-like structures" in the samples. They appear to be alive - they can reproduce themselves, even in water heated up to 600 degrees.

The catch? They don't seem to have any DNA.

Generally speaking, no DNA means it ain't life. But if it's capable of reproducing itself...um...er....Also, 250 degrees is the known upper limit for life in water. So 600 degrees is a bit of a record-breaker.

It's kinda nice when Nature throws us a curveball, isn't it?

There's a working hypothesis that life on this planet began when microbes from outer space landed on Earth. Maybe that's not so far-fetched after all...

www.popsci.com/popsci/sci...cdrcrd.html