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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. diseases from space. Text and diagrams copyright © 1979 by Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information address Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc., 10 East 53rd Street, New York, N.Y 10022. first u.s. edition isbn: 0-06-011937-3 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER: 79-3395 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Hoyle, Fred, Sir. Diseases from space. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Space medicine. 2. Communicable diseases—Etiology. 3. Diseases—Causes and theories of causation. I. Wickramasinghe, Nalin Chandra, joint author. II. Title. [DNLM: 1. Disease—Etiology. 2. Extraterrestrial environment. QZ40 H868d] RC1137.H69 1980 616'. 01 79-3395 ISBN 0-06-011937-3 80 81 82 83 84 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents List offigures vii Acknowledgments ix 1 Descent from space 1 2 Pathogenic invaders 13 3 The viral connection 23 4 History of a disease 41 5 Spread of a virus 55 6 Anatomy of an epidemic 71 7 Isolation and pandemics 101 8 Plagues past and present 119 9 Disease against mankind 139 10 Viruses and evolution 147 11 Diseases from space 157 Appendix 1: Organic materials in space 163 Appendix 2: The survival of cometary cells and viruses in passing to the Earth 169 Appendix 3: The interpretation of genetic material 177 Bibliography 191 Index 195 List offigures 2.1 Temperature and density profiles of the atmosphere 14 2.2 Sizes and shapes of bacteria and viruses 16 2.3 Schematic representation of pathogenic clouds settling at ground level 17 3.1 Incidence of the common cold compared with ground temperature as a function of time 29 3.2 Epidemics of the respiratory disease in Tristan da Cunha 33 3.35.2 Incidence of the common cold in Spitzbergen 38 4. 1 Annual death rate from influenza in England and Wales 44 4.2 Spread of 1948 influenza epidemic from a presumed focus in Sardinia 47 5.1 The behaviour of the 1957 Asian flu pandemic 57 5.2 State-by-state spread of influenza during the 1968 epidemic 58 Age distribution of 1/30 positive antibody titres to Asian flu, before an epidemic in 1957 60 5.4 Incidence of influenza in Tristan da Cunha 64 5.5 Death rates from influenza in four widely separated cities in the USSR during the 1977-1978 epidemic 68 6.1 Locations of West Country schools included in preliminary study 72 6.2 Excess absences above normal for Howell’s School 74 6.3 Excess total absences above normal for Howell’s, Llanishen High and St Cyres Dinas Powis 75 6.4 Excess total absences above normal for Cardiff High, Balfour House and Clifton College 76 6.5 Schematic plan of dormitories at Howell’s for four houses 79 6.6 Map of area around Howell’s School 82 6.7 Distribution of day-pupil attack-rates during the 1978 influenza epidemic in England and Wales 86 6.8 Correlation of attack-rates for Junior and Senior pupils 87 6.9 Correlation of attack-rates for day pupils and boarders in schools which had a mixture of both 88 6.10 Fluctuations from expected mean numbers of victims in several houses at Eton College 92 6.11 Average of mean wind speed x precipitation data for several non-coastal meteorological stations 97 6.12 Histogram of epidemic peak dates reported by schools in England and Wales 97 8.1 Incidence of poliomyelitis in Sri Lanka 122 8.2 Incidence curve for measles 127 8.3 The spread of the Black Death through Europe 131 8.4 If the Black Death had been spread by sea 132 A 1.1 Transmittance curve for cellulose modified to take account of dehydration and hydrocarbon impurity 164 A1.2 Expected emission from the Trapezium nebula using data in Figure Al.l 166 A1.3 Infra-red spectrum of the astronomical source OH26.5+0.6 compared with predictions for a cellulose dust model 167 A 1.4 Infra-red spectrum of the astronomical source BN with predictions for a cellulose model 167 A2.1 Orbit of Halley’s comet in relation to planetary orbits 170 A2.2 Falling speed of spherical particles of various radii 174 A2.3 The relation of sunspot relative numbers to the dates of influenza pandemics 176 A3.1 A molecule of DNA represented as a Crick-Watson double helix 178 A3. 2 The details of the attachments of four bases to the sugar-phosphate chain in DNA 179 A3. 3 Many linked amino acids form a protein 180 A3. 4 RNA copies one strand of DNA 181 A3. 5 Electron micrograph of an adenovirus mRNA molecule containing a particular gene, paired with a fragment of the viral DNA 186 Acknowledgments At various stages of this work we have had the benefit of discussions and technological advice from many colleagues. Our particular thanks go to Sir Christopher Andrewes and Dr Sylvia Reed of the Common Cold Research Institute, Salisbury; Drs C. W. L. Howells, P Mann and M. S. Pereira of the Public Health Laboratory Services; Prof. J. F Watkins and Dr D. Westmorland of the Department of Medical Microbiology, University Hospital of Wales; Prof V M. Zhdanov, V Ivanovsky of the Institute of Virology, Moscow; Prof. P Walcot, Department of Classics, University College, Cardiff; Prof. S. N. Wickramasinghe, Saint Mary’s Hospital, London; DrJ. Briscoe, Medical Officer, Eton College; and Dr P de la Motte, Ministry of Health, Sri Lanka. We also wish to record our thanks to headmasters, school doctors, matrons and nurses in over four hundred schools throughout England and Wales for their painstaking help and cooper- ation in our influenza survey. Descentfrom space 1 In Diseases from Space we shall be presenting arguments and facts which support the idea that the viruses and bacteria responsible for the infectious diseases of plants and animals arrive at the Earth from space. Furthermore, we shall argue that apart from their harmful effect, these same viruses and bacteria have been responsible in the past for the origin and evolution of life on the Earth. In our view, all aspects of the basic biochemistry of life come from outside the Earth. Bacteria are living cells of a comparatively simple kind that exist and multiply by using similar nutrients to other more complex cells, such as those which make up our own bodies. Not all bacteria are harmful. Some have little or no interaction with plants and ani- mals, while others serve useful functions. Bacteria in the gut of a sheep break down cellulose in the grass eaten by the sheep into its constituent sugar (glucose) molecules, and the sugar then becomes the animal’s source of food energy. Unlike the sheep and the cow, we humans cannot usefully eat grass because we do not carry the right kind of bacteria in our stomachs. The useful bacteria that ani- mals carry inside them maintain their numbers at more or less steady levels, whereas harmful bacteria seek to multiply their num- bers uncontrollably. When this happens inside us the consequence is a drain on the materials which should go towards maintaining the normal cells of our bodies. Moreover, the bacteria themselves exude 1 Descent from space chemical wastes that may poison us severely, as happens for instance in the disease of botulism. Although bacteria can cause extremely serious infections - pneumonia, tuberculosis and bubonic plague are other examples - their mode of attack is more straightforward than the attack of vir- uses; and as a general rule medical science has had greater success in coping with bacteria than with viruses. Viruses multiply by enter- ing and destroying living cells, not by making use of comparatively simple materials.
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