DOCSLIB.ORG

Q & a with Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Q & a with Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe Space Education and Strategic Applications Journal • Vol. 1, No. 1 • Spring / Summer 2020 Q & A with Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe By Melissa Layne would be remiss if I did not also in- clude in our inaugural issue an inter- I view with Chandra Wickramasinghe. Question 1 Layne: Professor Wickramasinghe, thank you for the opportunity for this interview. Do you believe person-to-person viral transmission occurs with Coronavirus or other viruses? If the infection comes from space, how do you account for the “close quarters” effect where infection rates run so much higher on cruise ships and such? Wickramasinghe: The new virus can of course be infective from person to person, but it seem that it is infective only on rel- atively close contact. The large clusters of cases occurring simultaneously on cruise ships, or in isolated communities, can be easily explained if clouds carrying the in- fective virus comes down in local regions. As for freak “superspreaders” being respon- sible for large clusters of cases, I think this is a myth based purely on ignorance. If a group of people were exposed to a cloud of virus and became simultaneously infected from such an environmental source, there would of course be a dispersion, or spread, in the times when the illness shows up. That is to say the incubation period would have statistical spread, so one case will always appear to be the first. To crown him/ her a title of superspreader, with mysterious power is akin to a medieval myth (ex- plained in my article). These ideas were first discussed by the late Sir Fred Hoyle and me in two books— Diseases from Space (1979) and Evolution from Space (1980). Here, we introduced the theory that comets carry bacteria and viruses and that impacts by comets were important for both starting life on Earth and for its further evolution. The first point to make is that the standard view that life originates spontaneously on Earth in a primordial soup (or in deep-sea thermal vents) has no evidence whatsoever to sup- port it. Every experiment that has been done to demonstrate or test this possibility has ended in dismal failure over more than 50 years. The molecular complexity of life – the information content of life – is of an exceedingly specific kind and it is super-as- 27 doi: 10.18278/sesa.1.1.4 Space Education and Strategic Applications Journal tronomical in quantity, and so the origin of life could not have happened on Earth. A few years ago the very oldest evidence of microbial life on Earth was discovered in rocks dated 4200 million years ago – and this was at a time when the Earth was being relentlessly pounded by comet and asteroid impacts. So there is little doubt now that the first life on Earth came with impacting comets, and the subsequent evolution of life happened against the backdrop of new bacteria and viruses being introduced via comets, adding new potential and new genes for evolution. It is this potential for evolution with new cosmic genes against which Darwinian evolution takes place. So there is no doubt cosmic viruses are in our genes. And this is the reason that new viruses coming from space today can relate to evolved life forms like ourselves. Question 2 Layne: There is, to say the least, a lot of research and brain power being applied globally to Coronavirus. What are all those esteemed virologists missing in the data? Wickramasinghe: It is only relatively recently that scientists have been able to fully grasp the enormous magnitude of the microbial and viral content of the terrestrial biosphere. We now know that a typical liter of surface seawater contains at least 10 billion microbes as well as some 100 billion viruses—the vast majority of which re- main unidentified and characterized to date. Two years ago an international group of scientists collected bacteria and viruses that fell through the rarefied atmosphere near the 4000 meter peaks of the Sierra Nevada mountains of Spain. They arrived at an astonishing tally of some 800 million viruses per square metre per day and an associated slightly smaller tally of bacteria – all of which would of course ultimately fall to the Earth’s surface. The assumption normally made is that all such viruses and bacteria necessarily originate on the Earth’s surface and are swept upwards in air currents. But in such a model many horrendous difficulties associated with the upward transport processes of bacteria and viruses are ignored. I think a significant fraction of this vast number of falling microbes must actually originate outside the terrestrial biosphere and come from cometary sources – viruses and bacteria that are expelled from comets. Further evidence comes from sampling the stratosphere for its bacterial and viral content. By sampling the stratosphere at a height of 41 km, using equipment carried using balloons already in 2002 we arrived at an estimated in-fall from this height of 20-200 million bacteria per square meter per day, and 10 to 100 times more viruses, falling downwards to the Earth. These are facts that cannot be ignored, but all too of- ten they are! So, if we take into account all the facts available to date we cannot avoid the conclusion that vast numbers of bacteria and viruses continue to fall through the Earth’s atmosphere, and it seems inevitable that a significant fraction is of external origin. 28 Q & A with Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe Question 3 Layne: How are comets and their debris stream meteor showers related to the hypothesis? Wickramasinghe: Of course comets have been regarded with fear and trepidation by many ancient cultures. Almost without exception comets have been thought to be bad omens – bringers of pestilence and death. The evidence for comets being impli- cated in the origin of life and also of diseases on Earth was intensely controversial when these ideas were first proposed in a scientific context by me in the 1970’s. Things have only changed a little since these early days. Now there is a growing consensus that comets are in some way connected to the origin of life. But most people are still fearful about going any further. But the facts alone tell us a different story. If one looks at all the available facts on epidemics throughout history, comets and epidemics appear to be causally linked. Stories of the sudden spread of plagues and pestilences punctuate human history throughout the millennia. The various epidemics, scattered through history and throughout the world often bear little or no resemblance one to another. But they share a common feature. They often affect entire cities, countries or even widely sep- arated parts of the Earth in a matter of days or weeks. The Greek Historian Thucydides describes one such epidemic—the plague of Athens of 429 BC thus: “It is said to have begun in that part of Ethiopia above Egypt .... On the city of Athens it fell suddenly, and first attacked the men in Pirae- us; so that it was even reported by them that the Peloponnesians had thrown poison into the cisterns ...” This event from Classical Greece bears striking similarities to the modern events re- lating to the outbreak of the Coronavirus in China. Thucydides writes that many families were simultaneously struck by a disease with a combination of symptoms hitherto unknown. The idea of an enemy (the Spartans) poisoning the drinking water rings true to what has happened in the Corona virus outbreak in China. Very similar descriptions of a sudden onset and rapid global spread is relevant to al- most all earlier as well as later epidemics. Extreme swiftness of transmission is hard to comprehend if, as is usually supposed, infection can pass only slowly from person to person or be carried by vectors such as lice and ticks, and more recently, monkeys, bats or snakes. Such explanations are particularly untenable for the many epidemics that occurred before the advent of air travel when movement of people across the Earth was a slow and tedious process. The general belief, that is by no means well-proven, is that major pandemics, such as influenza, start by random mutation or genetic recombination of a virus or bac- 29 Space Education and Strategic Applications Journal terium which then spreads across a susceptible population by direct person-to-per- son contact. If this is so, it is somewhat surprising that major pandemics tend to be relatively short-lived, usually lasting about a year, and that they do not eventually affect the entire human population, which would not have a specific immunity of any totally new pathogen. We might argue that a primary cometary dust infection is potentially the most lethal, and that secondary person-to-person transmissions have progressively reduced virulence resulting in a diminishing incidence of the disease over a limited period. Infections of a human population could occur directly by con- tact with “infected” meteoritic dust from an exploding cometary bolide, or indirectly by the original cometary infection passing first to rats, lice, primates, bats, snakes which can act as intermediaries. One important piece of historic evidence that emerged 101 years ago relates to the great Influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 that caused some 20-30 million deaths worldwide. Reviewing all the available data Dr. L. Weinstein wrote as follows: “Although person-to-person spread occurred in local areas, the disease appeared on the same day in widely separated parts of the world on the one hand, but on the other, took days to weeks to spread relatively short distances. It was detected in Boston and Bombay on the same day, but took three weeks before it reached New York City, despite the fact that there was considerable travel between the two cities.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Cometary Panspermia a Radical Theory of Life’S Cosmic Origin and Evolution …And Over 450 Articles, ~ 60 in Nature
    35 books: Cosmic origins of life 1976-2020 Physical Sciences︱ Chandra Wickramasinghe Cometary panspermia A radical theory of life’s cosmic origin and evolution …And over 450 articles, ~ 60 in Nature he combined efforts of generations supporting panspermia continues to Prof Wickramasinghe argues that the seeds of all life (bacteria and viruses) Panspermia has been around may have arrived on Earth from space, and may indeed still be raining down some 100 years since the term of experts in multiple fields, accumulate (Wickramasinghe et al., 2018, to affect life on Earth today, a concept known as cometary panspermia. ‘primordial soup’, referring to Tincluding evolutionary biology, 2019; Steele et al., 2018). the primitive ocean of organic paleontology and geology, have painted material not-yet-assembled a fairly good, if far-from-complete, picture COMETARY PANSPERMIA – cultural conceptions of life dating back galactic wanderers are normal features have argued that these could not into living organisms, was first of how the first life on Earth progressed A SOLUTION? to the ideas of Aristotle, and that this of the cosmos. Comets are known to have been lofted from the Earth to a coined. The question of how from simple organisms to what we can The word ‘panspermia’ comes from the may be the source of some of the have significant water content as well height of 400km by any known process. life’s molecular building blocks see today. However, there is a crucial ancient Greek roots ‘sperma’ meaning more hostile resistance the idea of as organics, and their cores, kept warm Bacteria have also been found high in spontaneously assembled gap in mainstream understanding - seed, and ‘pan’, meaning all.
    [Show full text]
  • Cause of Cambrian Explosion - Terrestrial Or Cosmic?
    Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology xxx (2018) 1e21 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/pbiomolbio Cause of Cambrian Explosion - Terrestrial or Cosmic? * Edward J. Steele a, j, , Shirwan Al-Mufti b, Kenneth A. Augustyn c, Rohana Chandrajith d, John P. Coghlan e, S.G. Coulson b, Sudipto Ghosh f, Mark Gillman g, Reginald M. Gorczynski h, Brig Klyce b, Godfrey Louis i, Kithsiri Mahanama j, Keith R. Oliver k, Julio Padron l, Jiangwen Qu m, John A. Schuster n, W.E. Smith o, Duane P. Snyder b, Julian A. Steele p, Brent J. Stewart a, Robert Temple q, Gensuke Tokoro o, Christopher A. Tout r, Alexander Unzicker s, Milton Wainwright b, j, Jamie Wallis b, Daryl H. Wallis b, Max K. Wallis b, John Wetherall t, D.T. Wickramasinghe u, J.T. Wickramasinghe b, N. Chandra Wickramasinghe b, j, o, Yongsheng Liu v, w a CY O'Connor ERADE Village Foundation, Piara Waters, WA, Australia b Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology, University of Buckingham, UK c Center for the Physics of Living Organisms, Department of Physics, Michigan Technological University, Michigan, United States d Department of Geology, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka e University of Melbourne, Office of the Dean, Faculty Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, 3rd Level, Alan Gilbert Building, Australia f Metallurgical & Materials Engineering IIT, Kanpur, India g South African Brain Research Institute, 6 Campbell Street, Waverly, Johannesburg, South Africa h University Toronto
    [Show full text]
  • Diseases from Space )
    FRED HOYLE N.C.WKKRAMASINGHE DISEASES FROM SPACE ) $ 11.95 DISEASES FROM SPACE FRED HOYLE CHANDRA WICKRAMASINGHE Until now the idea that viruses and bac- teria can land on the Earth from space has been looked on as at best unproven, at worst outrageous. In their book Lifecloud, which has re- ceived worldwide attention, Sir Fred Hoyle, world-renowned astrophysicist, and his associate, Prof. Chandra Wickrama- singhe, argued that life arrived on Earth from interstellar space. Now, in this even more exciting sequel, they maintain that viruses and bacteria responsible for plagues and diseases also reach our planet from space. According to this revolutionary new theory, which may well have great influ- ence on modern scientific thought, mic- robes stored deep-frozen in comets since the early history of the solar system thou- sands of millions of years ago have sub- sequently arrived on Earth — and con- tinue to do so. And are the source of present disease. ( Continued on backflap 0680 Diseases from space DISEASES FROM SPACE Fred Hoyle Chandra Wickramasinghe HARPER & ROW, PUBLISHERS, New York Cambridge, Hagerstown, Philadelphia, San Francisco, London, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Sydney The authors and publisher are grateful to the following for permission to quote extracts: Weidenfeld (Publishers) Ltd for permission to quote from The Common Cold by Sir Christopher Andrewes; The Folio Society and K. R. Mackenzie for permission to quote from his translation of Virgil’s Georgies; Penguin Books for permission to quote from E. V Rieu’s translation of Homer’s Iliad; Dr John Chadwick for permission to quote from Hippocratic Writings, Penguin Books, 1978; The New EnglandJournal ofMedicine, 6 May 1976, for permission to quote from an article by Dr Louis Weinstein.
    [Show full text]
  • Milan M. Ćirković Astronomical Observatory Belgrade Volgina 7, 11160 Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro
    ON THE FIRST ANTHROPIC ARGUMENT IN ASTROBIOLOGY Milan M. Ćirković Astronomical Observatory Belgrade Volgina 7, 11160 Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro e-mail: [email protected] Abstract. We consider the little-known anthropic argument of Fontenelle dealing with the nature of cometary orbits, given a year before the publication of Newton's Principia. This is particularly interesting in view of the rapid development of the recently resurgent theories of cometary catastrophism and their role in the modern astrobiological debates, for instance in the “rare Earth” hypothesis of Ward and Brownlee. Keywords: comets:general—stars: planetary systems—extraterrestrial intelligence—history and philosophy of astronomy 1. Introduction The issue of stability of conditions prevailing on (at least potentially) habitable planets throughout the Galaxy is the central question of the nascent science of astrobiology (e.g. Darling 2001). We are lucky enough to live in an epoch of great astronomical discoveries, the most distinguished probably being the discovery of dozens of planets orbiting nearby stars (for nice reviews, see Marcy and Butler 1998, 2000; Ksanfomaliti 2000). This particular discovery brings about a profound change in our thinking about the universe, and prompts further questions on the frequency of Earth-like habitats elsewhere in the Galaxy. In a sense, it answers a question posed since antiquity: are there other, potentially inhabited or inhabitable, worlds in the vastness of space? In asking that question, obviously, we take into account our properties as intelligent observers, as well as physical, chemical and other pre-conditions necessary for our existence. The latter are the topic of the so-called anthropic principle(s), the subject of 1 much debate and controversy in cosmology, fundamental physics, and philosophy of science.
    [Show full text]
  • Dna Sequencing and Predictions of the Cosmic Theory of Life
    Accepted for publication in Astrophysics and Space Science DNA SEQUENCING AND PREDICTIONS OF THE COSMIC THEORY OF LIFE N. Chandra Wickramasinghe Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology, The University of Buckingham, Buckingham MK18 1EG, UK; Email: [email protected] Abstract The theory of cometary panspermia, developed by the late Sir Fred Hoyle and the present author argues that life originated cosmically as a unique event in one of a great multitude of comets or planetary bodies in the Universe. Life on Earth did not originate here but was introduced by impacting comets, and its further evolution was driven by the subsequent acquisition of cosmically derived genes. Explicit predictions of this theory published in 1979-1981, stating how the acquisition of new genes drives evolution, are compared with recent developments in relation to horizontal gene transfer, and the role of retroviruses in evolution. Precisely-stated predictions of the theory of cometary panspermia are shown to have been verified. Keywords: Cometary panspermia, horizontal gene transfer, viruses, evolution. 1. Introduction A scientific theory has value only if it can make testable predictions. Falsifiability, according to fulfilment or otherwise of predictions, is the essence of the process by which a convergence to an objective truth can be achieved. The cometary panspermia hypothesis developed in the period 1977-1981 by Fred Hoyle and the author challenged the prevailing dogma of an origin of life in a “warm little pond” on Earth. The enormous complexity of life at a molecular genetic level prompted us to question this hypothesis on probabilistic grounds. The greatest enigma of biology – the origin of life – is in our view more likely to be resolved if we go to comets, a connected set of “warm little poinds” numbering ~ 1022 comets in our galaxy alone.
    [Show full text]
  • VIVA PANSPERMIA! Chandra Wickramasinghe the Arguments For
    VIVA PANSPERMIA! Chandra Wickramasinghe Cardiff Centre for Astrobiology Cardiff University, Cardiff UK The arguments for panspermia as a mode of origin of life on Earth are far from dead; on the contrary they are now more robust than ever. The term panspermia is derived from Greek roots: pan (all) and sperma (seed) –seeds everywhere. The underlying ideas go back to the time of classical Greece to philosopher Aristarchus of Samos in the 5th century BC promulgating the ominipresence of the seeds of life in the cosmos. Panspermia also has a resonance with more ancient Vedic, Hindu and Buddhist traditions of India stretching back over 4000 years. The first serious scientific statement of panspermia came from Lord Kelvin (William Thomson1) at the 1881 presidential address to the British Association: “…Hence, and because we all confidently believe that there are at present, and have been from time immemorial, many worlds of life besides our own, we must regard it as probable in the highest degree that there are countless seed-bearing meteoritic stones moving about through space. If at the present instant no life existed upon the Earth, one such stone falling upon it might, by what we blindly call natural causes, lead to its becoming covered with vegetation.” Two decades later panspermia was placed in an explicit astronomical context by Svante Arrhenius2, first in a short paper published in 1903 and thereafter in his book Worlds in the Making. Long before the discovery of the many remarkable survival attributes of bacteria, Arrhenius inferred that such properties must exist, and cited experiments where seeds had been taken down to near zero degrees Kelvin and shown to survive.
    [Show full text]
  • Studies Relating to the Theory of Panspermia
    STUDIES RELATING TO THE THEORY OF PANSPERMIA By Fathia Saeid MSc. Omar Al Mukhtar University, Al Bayda, Libya MPhil, University of Sheffield, England Thesis submitted to the Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology the University of Sheffield, England, in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, the University of Sheffield, England 2017 IN THE NAME OF ALLAH MOST GRACIOUS MOST MERCIFUL Dedication I dedicate this work to my husband Saad, the memory of my father, affectionate Mother. This project is dedicated to my beloved sons Mohamed, Ahmed, Almoatsm and Mustafa, my sweet daughters Fatma, Zenab, Amna and Aisha, also to my brothers and sisters. ii Acknowledgements First, I thank Allah for helping me to complete this Thesis, and the messenger of Allah, Mohammad (peace be on him) who taught that the learning is from cradle to tomb. I expand my thanks and respect to my supervisor Professor Dr. Milton Wainwright for his support, guidance, constant encouragement all time, helpful advice, assisted me during study and complete my research. I am pleased to give my special thanks to Dr. D. J. Gilmour for his co- supervision and his advice during my study. I am grateful to Professor Jeffrey Green and Dr Mesnage for their constructive discussions, helpful advice and comments throughout my study. My thanks are due to all my family for their encouragement, support and patience throughout the period of my study. The go also to my colleagues in Prof. Wainwright’s laboratory (G10) for their friendship, support and continuous encouragement.
    [Show full text]
  • Viruses from Space and Related Matters
    VIRUSES FROM SPACE AND RELATED MATTERS Fred Hoyle Chandra Wickramasinghe and John Watkins UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CARDIFF PRESS 1986 First published in [986 in Great Britain by University College Cardiff Press P.O. Box 78, Cardiff, CFl IXI United Kingdom and 51 Washington Street, Dover, New Hampshire 03820 USA Copyright C) 1986 Fred Hoyle, Chandra Wickramasinghe and John Watkins All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photcopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the Publishers. ISBN 0-906449-93-6 Printed in Great Britain by Alden Press, Oxford Contents List of Figures v Preface viii Acknowledgemen ts IX Chapter 1. Viruses from Space and Related Matters (1985) 2. The Anatomy of a Conference Epidemic (1983) 39 3. The Plague of Athens - Was it Smallpox? 47 4. Influenza - A Genetic Virus with an External Trigger 57 5. Influenza in Some West-country Schools (1978) 65 6. Does Epidemic Disease Come from Space? (1977) 79 7. The Influenza Epidemic of 1977/78 87 8. Schools Influenza Survey 1985 105 Index 114 LIST OF FIGURES Fig. 1 Histogram showing the distribution of influenza attack rate among independent schools in England and Wales during the 1977-78 pandemic. Fig. 2 Whooping cough notifications in England and Wales from 1940 to 1982. Fig. 3 Quarterly incidence of whooping cough, measles and infective jaundice in the City of Cardiff vs The Vale of Glamorgan. Fig. 4 Percentage attack rates in households where one member succumbs to upper respiratory infection in the epidemics of 1968/69 and 1969/70 at Cirencester, England, accord• ing to data from Hope-Simpson.
    [Show full text]
  • CURRICULUM VITAE Professor Nalin Chandra
    CURRICULUM VITAE Professor Nalin Chandra Wickramasinghe BSc (Ceylon), MA, PhD, ScD (Cantab), Hon DSc (Soka-Tokyo), Hon DSc (Sri Lanka: Ruhuna Univ), FRAS, FRSA, FIMA, CMath Address etc: 24 Llwynypia Road Lisvane Cardiff CF14 0SY UK Tel. (44) 029 2075 2146 Mobile (44)7778389243 e-mail: [email protected] Personal Details: Date of Birth: January 20, 1939 Place of Birth: Colombo, Sri Lanka Nationality: British and Sri Lankan Education: Royal College, Colombo, 1950-1957 University of Ceylon, 1957-1960 First Class Honours in BSc Special Mathematics Examination, 1960 Awarded Commonwealth Scholarship, 1960 University of Cambridge, 1960-1963 PhD in Astrophysics, 1963 ScD, 1973 Awards etc: Powell Prize for English Poetry, Trinity College, Cambridge, 1962 International Dag Hammarskjold Gold Medal for Science, 1986 Scholarly Achievement Award of the Institute of Oriental Philosophy, Japan, 1988 Awarded title of Vidya Jyothi (Sri-Lanka National Honour), 1992 Sahabdeen International Award for Science, 1996 Honorary Doctorate of Soka University, Tokyo, 1996 John Snow Medal, Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland, 2004 Honorary DSc (Sri Lanka: Ruhuna University) 2004 Asian Power 100 list (2005) named Chandra Wickramasinghe as one of the 100 most influential Asians living in the UK Present Positions: 1 Director of the Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology, University of Buckingham, Buckingham, UK; (2011- ) Professor, Cardiff University Honorary Professor, University of Buckingham, UK Editorial Board Member of Astrophysics and Space Science
    [Show full text]
  • Comments on the Origin and Spread of the 2019 Coronavirus
    Virol Curr Res Volume 4:1,2020 Virology: Current Research DOI: 10.37421/Virol Curr Res.2020.4.109 Review Article Open Access Comments on the Origin and Spread of the 2019 Coronavirus N Chandra Wickramasinghe1,2,3,4*, Edward J Steele2,5, Reginald M Gorczynski6, Robert Temple7, Gensuke Tokoro2,4, Jiangwen Qu8, Daryl H Wallis2,4 and Brig Klyce9 1Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology, University of Buckingham, MK18 1EG, England, UK 2Centre for Astrobiology, University of Ruhuna, Matara, Sri Lanka 3National Institute of Fundamental Studies, Kandy, Sri Lanka 4Institute for the Study of Panspermia and Astroeconomics, Gifu, Japan 5C Y O’Connor, ERADE Village, Foundation, Piara Waters,Perth 6112 WA, Australia 6University Toronto Health Network, Toronto General Hospital, University of Toronto, Canada 7History of Chinese Science and Culture Foundation, Conway Hall, London, UK 8Department of Infectious Disease Control, Tianjin Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Hedong Qu, Tianjin Shi, China 9Astrobiology Research Trust, Memphis, TN, USA Abstract We propose that the new coronavirus which first appeared in the Hubei province of China was probably linked to the arrival of a pure culture of the virus contained in cometary debris that was dispersed over a localised area of the planet namely China. The sighting of a fireball some 2000 kilometers north of Wuhan on 11 October 2019 followed shortly after with the first recorded cases in Hubei is suggestive of a causal link. Gene sequencing data of the virus that show little or no genetic variations between isolates, combined with available epidemiological data point to the predominance of a transmission process directly from an “infected” environment, with person- to-person transmission playing a comparatively weaker secondary role.
    [Show full text]
  • Life on Earth Came from Other Planets by Rhawn Joseph, Ph.D.* Emeritus, Brain Research Laboratory, Northern California
    Journal of Cosmology, 2009, Vol 1, pages 1-56 Cosmology 2009 Peer Reviewed - With Open Peer Commentary Life on Earth Came From Other Planets by Rhawn Joseph, Ph.D.* Emeritus, Brain Research Laboratory, Northern California ABSTRACT A comprehensive theory based on a review of scientific findings published in prestigious scientific journals, is presented to explain how life on Earth came from other planets. Life appeared a few hundred million years after the Earth's creation during a period of heavy bombardment. Life on Mars may have appeared near the same time. Microbes are adapted for surviving the hazards of space, including ejection from and landing upon a planet. Microbial fossils have been discovered in fifteen carbonaceous chondrites, most impacted by supernova. The Sun and Earth were created from a nebular cloud and protoplanetary disc, the remnants of an exploding star and its planets which may have harbored life. When the parent star became a red giant, its solar winds blew away planetary atmospheres along with airborne microbes, which were deposited in a growing nebular cloud. Because the red giant lost 40% to 80% of its mass and its gravitational influences were reduced, its planets increased orbital distances or were ejected prior to supernova and may not have been atomized. The inner layers of a nebular cloud and protoplanetary disk protects against radiation and extreme cold enabling spores to survive. Microbes may have also survived within planetary debris which bombarded the Earth. As only life can produce life, then life on Earth also came from life which may have originated on planets which orbited the parent star.
    [Show full text]
  • Sunspot Activity, Influenza and Ebola Outbreak Connection
    obiolog str y & f A O u o l t a r e n a r c u h o J Qu et al., Astrobiol Outreach 2016, 4:2 Journal of Astrobiology & Outreach DOI: 10.4172/2332-2519.1000154 ISSN: 2332-2519 Review Article Open Access Sunspot Activity, Influenza and Ebola Outbreak Connection Jiangwen Qu1, Zhigang Gao1, Ying Zhang1, Milton Wainwright2, Chandra Wickramasinghe3,4 and Tareq Omairi2 1Department of Infectious Disease Control, Tianjin Center for Disease Control and Prevention, China 2Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK 3Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology [BCAB], Buckingham University, UK 4Churchill College, Cambridge CB3 0HA, UK *Corresponding author: Wickramasinghe NC, Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology [BCAB], Buckingham University, Churchill College, Cambridge CB3 0HA, UK, Tel: +44 (0)2920752146, +44 (0)7778389243; E-mail: [email protected] Received date: August 11, 2016; Accepted date: August 24, 2016; Published date: August 31, 2016 Copyright: © 2016 Qu J, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Abstract An ever-present threat of a major new influenza pandemic of devastating proportions haunts us, and despite diligent monitoring of circulating viruses has been impossible to predict. On a more local scale outbreaks of Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever (EHF) in West Africa have posed a serious public health threat because of its high fatality risk. Research on the environmental factors underlying both EHF and influenza epidemiology may provide useful insights into the occurrence of future pandemic outbreaks.
    [Show full text]