Claim made for new form of life (Nannobacteria) -- BBC

[On the Road]

Doctors claim to have uncovered new evidence that the tiny particles known as "nannobacteria" are indeed alive and may cause a range of human illnesses.

The existence of nannobacteria is one of the most controversial of scientific questions - some experts claim they are simply too small to be life forms. But US scientists report they have now isolated these cell-like structures in tissue from diseased human arteries. Their research is described in the American Journal of Physiology.

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The team found tiny spheres ranging in size from 30-100 nanometres (nm - billionths of a metre), which is smaller even than many viruses. When the tissue was broken up, filtered to remove anything more than 200nm and the filtrate added to a sterile medium, the optical density - or cloudiness - of the medium increased. This, the researchers argue, means the nanoparticles were multiplying of their own accord.

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The nano-scale objects showed up in tissue from patients with calcified arterial aneurysms but not uncalcified samples. Nannobacteria have been implicated by some scientists in the formation of kidney stones and psammona bodies - calcified (mineralised) structures in ovarian cancer. But many other scientists dispute that they are actually life forms.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3729487.stm

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Creepy -- this is the first I've heard of them, unless you count the tiny structures in the Martian meteorite.