Mystery of the Purple Spheres

I came across a sophomoric report (Broken News Daily on Yahoo) about mysterious purple spheres that were found in the desert by a woman named Geraldine Vargas and her husband. They were walking the desert in or around Tuscan, Arizona when they spotted the glittering, sparkling mass of purple spheres. She took some great photos of it and here they are:

Purple+spheres01Purple+spheres02

News Station Reports

The story got interesting when I dug a little deeper into it. Geraldine contacted the local news station, KGUN out of Tuscan, and they sent a reporter to investigate.  In a nutshell, they asked a botanist if they could identify what the spheres could be, and they suggested maybe a form of slime mold or jelly fungus.

Slime Mold

Here are some examples of slime mold:

SlimeMold01SlimeMold02SlimeMold03

Jelly Fungus

Now here are some examples of jelly fungus:

JellyFungus01JellyFungus02JellyFungus03

I don’t think either looks particularly like the purple spheres.

DecoBeadsAnother Possibility

Adding to the mystery, viewers of KGUN’s news report called in to say they are nothing more than Deco Beads. Well, they do look more like the Deco Beads than anything else, but why would someone dump thousands of them in a remote area of a desert?

Deco Beads are used to hydrate cut plants and flowers. Maybe someone added water in the hopes of growing a dormant desert garden? I suppose it’s possible, but that does seem somewhat implausible to me. I mean if you’re going to waste that much money on deco beads, dump them in your back yard so you can enjoy the results if anything grows, right?

What Needs to Happen

What really needs to happen is the Vargas’ need to go back there and scoop up a good sampling of the purple spheres. Then they should take them to a reputable lab nearby, perhaps at a local university, and let the scientists figure out what it is. I’d love to hear the results.

Purple+spheres03

What do you think they are?

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