Orange Goo

“So this is natural.”

Jeep Rice, Scientist in Juneau, Alaska

Photo by NOAA

Invasion of the Orange Goo. Sounds like the title of a B-list horror movie, doesn’t it? Not for one village in Alaska. It’s reality.

Kivalina, Alaska (population 388) is being invaded by orange goo. The stuff first appeared bobbing in the town’s harbor, and within a day it had washed ashore. Residents were puzzled but not alarmed, until a day later when they found the orange glop floating atop the rain water normally collected for drinking and clinging to rooftops. That’s when they called in the experts to tell them what the heck was invading their town. 

The orange goo had the scientists scratching their heads, too . . . for a while. Right away they ruled out that it was a man-made substance or fuel by-product. They cast a suspicious eye on a zinc factory 40 miles away, but the folks there swore it wasn’t their stuff and the evidence bore them out. The scientists thought it might be an algae—it acted like algae. But last week, after putting the orange stuff under a microscope, they finally got their answer: eggs.

It turns out the orange goo is thousands of microscopic eggs clumped together. There’s a lipid oil droplet in the middle of each egg, which gives them the orange glow. Simple explanation, isn’t it? Funny how a little orange goo and fear of the unknown can make the imagination run wild. Some bloggers were even speculating that the goo might be alien life forms. 

But wait a minute. We don’t know what exactly is in the eggs, do we? What’s going to happen when they hatch? The scientists who identified the eggs admit they’ve never seen anything like them before. They’ve sent samples to other labs for further testing. I don’t know—I’m no expert, but I think I’d be sending a sample to NASA to get their opinion on the orange goo, too.

Read the articles:
·        Orange substance spreads in Alaskan Town, experts baffled
·        Identified: Orange goo that blanketed Alaska beach