Some Scientists Think SARS May Have Come from Outer Space

LONDON (Reuters) ^ | May 22, 2003 | Patricia Reaney

[ido_now]

I think these scientist come from outer space.

[putupon]

Sars bug came through the worm holes explained here, it's real science, be afraid

[Diogenesis]

A chinese military experiment gone awry is more likely.

[Gorzaloon]

Why would the virus be exposed to the "hostile environment of space" if it arrived in a small chunk of rock? This happens every day ~ the arrival of the rocks, if not the viruses.

Yes, but look at all the effort it takes to recover the microbes, and people still dispute they are actually what they seem. Further, they are not alive. Such a rock is pretty effectively sterilized by re-entry heat.

No, I genuinely think this person struggled and struggled, slowly reading _The Andromeda Strain_, moving his lips as he read, and had an epiphany of some sort, in a cannabis bar.

And all the while I had to think of promising and worthwhile programs I have seen die because of lack of funding...yet someone pays this person's salary to come up with things like this?

[Gorzaloon]

then why has china always been a generator of the flu?

Because lots of people crowded together emulate a Petri dish and give the flu more opportunities to mutate.

People in Antarctica say they only have two colds a year-Whenever new people are brought to the station.

[aristeides]

Hong Kong researchers say SARS virus came from civet cat eaten by Chinese .

[Betty Jo]

I dont believe that a nice little kitty kat did Sars.

My mother in law used to have a coat that looked like leopard,but she said it was this cat .This was from the forties.So, I guess the civet went from coats to dinner.

[Puppage]

SARS=PLAN-9

[Darksheare]

Nope.
Not yet.

[Darksheare]

Toxoplasmosis (In people).
A cat parasite that comes from rodents.
It infects a rat or mouse and rewires it's brain so that it's natural fear of cats is obliterated.
Said rodent then picks a fight with a cat.
The cat is the toxoplasmosis bacterium(?) breeder, the rat is the carrier.

The little bug multiplies in Kitty kitty, and is expelled via fecal matter, which is nibbled by ratty. Which starts the process again.
Interestingly, the bug will multiply only in cats.
In people, it causes all sorts of problems -pregnant women especially.

[js1138]

I'm jumping into this thread without reading everything, but I just heard on the radio news a few minutes ago that SARS has been traced to an oddball restraunt dish using a cat or catlike creature as the meat item.

[Darksheare]

No, their tech support really stinks.
Toll free? Ha!
They're only in it for the conquest!

Seriously though, it was a fictional story written on a whim.
Sortof a 'what if we are intellectual property?' deal.

[Darksheare]

Don't go in the basement!

Reminds me of a story that started out with those words, and was about ants.
Truly an odd novel.
Wish I could remember the title.

[Darksheare]

That wouldn't happen to be from the novel of The Matrix, would it?
And if so, where would I find it?
I've heard rumor that it's actually a trilogy of books that are kinda hard to find...

[Darksheare]

oops.
Sorry about lowering your goosebump threshold.
As a side note, I sometimes write other kinds of fiction.
Fantasy style stories, or just plain macabre.
Like the one about a guy whose whole life is stalked by death, and death appears to him as a pale-ish lady.
Still polishing that one up a bit.

[Darksheare]

It's quite possible that a virus could survive long endurance 'runs' in space.
There an 'extremophile' bacteria here on Earth that can survive hundreds of thousands of rads of radiation.
Many more times than it would take to kill one of us in seconds.
It's called Radiodurans.

So if there's a deep rock living bug that thrives in radwaste conditions, it would follow that there are things that would survive other just as welcoming conditions.

Nothing would surprise me anymore.

[mhking]

If you can find them, David Gerrold's War Against the Chtorr" series (4 books; there's supposed to be a fifth, but when it'll be released, no one knows) is an incredible story (albeit politically correct) about an entire ecosystem that seeded itself on Earth from space.

A decimated Earth is left to fight against this entire set of lifeforms (not just one, but tons of different types of plant and animal life) that is taking over the planet on an increasing basis. The most recognizable lifeform tied to this series is a giant "worm" about the size of a Greyhound bus, with the front end full of teeth. These carniverous monsters are always hungry, and have an unearthly scream that would peel paint off of a wall. Matter of fact, just about ALL of the alien flora and fauna in this story are carniverous - 'human' appears to translate as 'lunch' to these things...

[putupon]

but I just heard on the radio news a few minutes ago that SARS has been traced to an oddball restraunt dish using a cat

I hate cats

[Darksheare]

Hmmm.

I'm going to have to do a rewrite of the story to catch up with the times now.
Seems I'll have to lengthen it a little.

Still, it won't have a happy ending.

[Darksheare]

In Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Arthur Dent says something that is brought through a random hole in space time to the Vlu'urg battle council... and most of a small galaxy is destroyed.