Proof of Alien Life?

[CatInASuit]

A group of British scientists sent a balloon 27km up into the sky to see what they could find and it came back bearing micro-organisms that they are claiming could only have come from outer space.

There claim goes on to say that there is no known way any earth organism could get up so high, and so the only other option is that it is incoming. The organisms are apparently "unusual" and also contain DNA as well lending further credence to the theory that life on Earth came from outer space in the beginning.

They will be running the test again in October to see if they can duplicate it.

More here.

Personally, I just wonder if someone ran out of funding.

[Elendil's Heir]

As Michael Crichton (and probably someone before him) wrote, life always finds a way. We've found living things, big and small, in the deepest oceans and the coldest wastelands. I wouldn't be at all surprised at the existence of ETs somewhere in the universe, given how unimaginably vast it is, but the more reasonable explanation for this high-altitude find is, I would think, that it may be previously unknown but is still native to Earth.

[What Exit?]

Why couldn't it just be upper atmosphere life? Were the checks being done before and after it left the atmosphere or only upon return to earth? The story is weak in detail and heavy in claims.

[Rube E. Tewesday]

And the scientists appear to have published their claims in a journal that is not taken at all seriously.