Science has once again found itself at a dead end: the strange slime found in the British Ham Wall Nature Reserve in Somerset has never been identified. Although it took more than half a year.
The quivering substance was picked up back in winter - in February 2013 - on the day a meteorite fell on Russian Chelyabinsk. On that day, the meteorite also flew over the reserve - many saw it. The substance, which lay on the grass, was transferred to the laboratory of the Center for UK Biodiversity (AMC), Great Britain at the Natural History Museum. And now - in late autumn - scientists admitted that the research ended in vain. even suggest anything worthwhile.
“This mucus is a real secret,” said biologist Chesca Rogers, one of the AMC leaders. According to her, traces of worm and bacterial DNA were found in the substance, but only because the samples were sent in contaminated soil.
And only smeared my hands with mucus
By the way, such a find is far from the first. Mucus is found regularly all over the world. Moreover, folklore associates its appearance exclusively with meteorite falls. For example, here are some curious poems left by the British poet John Suckling (1609-1642):
“He watched with a keen eye, Promotional video:
Like a false star fell on the market square, And, having come running, he tried to grab her, But he only smeared his hands with mucus."
Walter Scott in his novel "Talisman" wrote: "Look for a star that has fallen to the ground - and you will see only a disgusting gelatinous mass, which, rushing through the sky, for a moment lit up with a dazzling light."
In the nineteenth century, the fall of this "vile gelatinous mass" was repeatedly described in scientific journals. The "Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science" reported that "On October 8, 1844, near Koblenz, a German gentleman, accompanied by another person, was walking in the late evening in the dark on a dry plowed field. They saw a luminous body descending right next to them - no further than 20 meters. And they heard how it clearly, with a noise hit the ground. They marked the spot, returned there early the next morning and found a jelly-like mass of grayish color."
The magazine "Nature" in 1910 told about a certain Joel Powers from Lowell (Massachusetts, USA), who "saw how a bright shooting star or meteor swept through the atmosphere, hitting the ground near him. He found that the jelly had an almost unbearable odor."
However, the smell is not reported every time. On the contrary, many witnesses emphasize that the substance does not smell.
On September 26, 1950, four Philadelphia police officers spotted a luminous object falling into the field. Approaching the place of the fall, they saw a pulsating mass with a diameter of about two meters. She was filled with light, then faded away. One of the police officers, who dared to touch her, assured that the mass was soft to the touch, similar to gelatin. He tore off a piece that melted into his palm like snow. After half an hour, the strange mass evaporated without a trace. This incident a few years later inspired director Irwin Iworth to create the horror film The Blob (1958).
Heavenly inhabitants
“Some people think that the mucus is not the fertilized eggs of frogs,” says Ceska Rogers. “Others consider it to be a fungus, mold or something vegetable. None of our tests showed anything like this.
“What if the sky is gelatinous high above? - suggested in 1919 the eccentric American explorer of the unknown Charles Hoy Fort. “Maybe meteorites are plowing through it and separating fragments? I personally think it would be ridiculous to think of the whole sky as gelatinous. It seems more acceptable that only some of its areas are gelatinous.
Studies of the atmosphere in the twentieth century left no chance for Fort's hypothesis. Then an alternative appeared - they say, creatures live in the atmosphere, the flesh of which consists of a substance similar to an airgel. They glow while they are still alive due to internal processes. And after death they immediately disintegrate.
A less pleasant version says that "jelly" is a product of the digestion of celestial inhabitants. The matter is small: to catch at least one, thereby proving the fact of their existence and digestion. But it doesn't work.
INSTEAD OF COMMENT
There is still someone in the clouds
Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Vladimir Bychkov from Moscow State University suggested that "mucus" appears in the middle of clouds due to the multiplication of bacteria and algae that form complex structures. In fact, he echoes the supporters of the theory of celestial inhabitants. But without attracting creatures unknown to science.
The scientist believes that organisms that are lifted from the ground by air currents settle in the clouds. They reproduce there, "feeding on organic particles or plants." They form "networks or tangles of bacteria interconnected with each other."
Falling, "balls" capture water, turning "into a complex structure with a skeleton of bacteria, mucus - a product of the multiplication of bacteria - and water."
According to Vladimir Lvovich, the smell of the resulting "jellied meat" depends on the decay products of bacteria - if there are a lot of them, then a putrid smell is inevitable. And the color depends on which bacteria prevail. Once on the ground, bacteria tend to "go into the soil", leaving only mucus and rapidly evaporating water.
It is easy to check Bychkov's version. You just need to find the freshest "jelly" and take an uncontaminated sample. Alas, "things are still there". As microbiologist Bernard Dixon noted, "The most surprising thing about the problem is that despite the large amount of literature, especially after the advent of the Internet, observations have received very little scientific attention." And without it, all hypotheses will remain unproven - they will be nothing more than reasoning from scratch.
REFERENCE
Star rot
The Germans call the slime "star jelly", the British - "star rot". In the XIV century, it was also called "assub" - from the Arabic "ash-shuhub" - "shooting star".
In some places in Great Britain there are also other names - "star shot", "astral jelly". In his writings, written in Latin, John of Gaddesden (1280-1361) refers to the gelatinous substance as "stella terrae" - "a star on earth."
In Mexico, there is perhaps the strangest name - "caca de luna", that is, "lunar g … but". And in the scientific literature, you can find the term "gel-like meteors".
In Russia, the substance is known as "trembling", "hmara", "sky" or "heavenly jelly".
According to the medieval scientist, this very "caca de luna" helps with abscesses.
BTW
And then the "angel hair" fell out
Talking about "star rot", ufologists always remember another substance that falls out of UFOs in front of thousands of people. We are talking about "angel hair" - thin, web-like threads that can cover entire cities. They melt quickly in the hands, more slowly in the open air, and in a sealed container they are well preserved and can be carried to the laboratory.
On October 17, 1952, the sky was clear over the French town of Oloron and the weather was excellent. Then hundreds of residents saw a whitish "cloud" of ideal shape - a long narrow cylinder shrouded in a whitish haze, inclined at an angle. He slowly moved in a straight line and left a white train behind his upper part.
There was more than one cylinder - dozens of balls were flying in front of it. To the naked eye, they seemed colorless, like clouds of smoke. But through the binoculars, the headmaster of the school, Yves Prigent, discerned in the middle of each "ball" a red ball surrounded by a yellowish ring. A trail remained behind the UFO squadron, which slowly settled to the ground. For several hours, threads and lumps of substance hung on trees, on wires and roofs, as if millions of spiders had woven a web at once.
Ten days later, the exact same scene played out over another French town - Gaillac. A giant cylinder, tilted at an angle, accompanied by dozens of UFOs, crossed the sky, filling streets and houses with thin threads.
On May 4, 1981, residents of the American city of Denville watched "cobwebs" falling from the sky. They covered houses, wires and trees. Everything began to look as if hundreds of years had passed. Local resident William Hammer looked up and noticed "something above, spinning near the sun." Through binoculars, he saw that metal discs were spinning in the sky, flying back and forth. From their bottoms, a continuous stream of whitish material flowed, filling everything around.
When the "angel hair" was wound on a stick and sealed in a test tube, the analysis showed that this is a rather complex chemical compound with a predominance of boron, silicon, calcium and magnesium. Scientists still have not been able to reproduce it or understand what it is.
"Angel hair" and "heavenly jelly" are quite similar - they are falling from the sky. There is only one "but": no one saw the UFO and the fall of the "jelly" at the same time. It is not worth linking these phenomena yet.
