Proofs that Life is Cosmic

Acceptance of a New Paradigm

Chandra Wickramasinghe

• Publisher: WSPC
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9789813233126
• Topic: Physical Sciences
• Subtopic: Physics
• Index: Physics

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This is a revisit of a radical theory of cometary panspermia and cosmic life that was first proposed by Chandra Wickramasinghe and the late Sir Fred Hoyle in 1982. In its earliest form the theory of cosmic life started off as a speculation in 1974 after the first discovery of complex organic molecules and polymeric dust in interstellar space. The speculation soon developed into a serious scientific theory, predictions of which were available to be verified or falsified. Over four decades there have been a multitude of tests and predictions of the theory being positive in vindicating the proposition of life as a cosmic rather than a purely terrestrial phenomenon. A paradigm shift of enormous magnitude and significance is to be expected.

The ideas and theories described in this book would have a far-reaching influence affecting the future development of diverse branches of science.

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--> Contents:

• Introduction
• Proofs that Life is Cosmic (December 1982)
• Atmosphere (Terrestrial)
• Bacteria and Other Microorganisms
• Comets
• Diseases
• Evolution (Biological)
• Interstellar Grains
• Meteorites
• Origin of Life
• Planets

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--> Readership: Students and researchers in astronomy and biology. -->
Keywords:Origin of Life;Comets;Panspermia;Evolution;Interstellar Dust;MeteoritesReview:0

Prof. Sir Fred Hoyle
and
Prof. Chandra Wickramasinghe

PROOFS THAT LIFE IS
COSMIC

December 1982

PREFACE

THE arguments for why life is cosmic are many and diverse. In the past we have published our work on these matters in different places, as papers or preprints and as books, choosing the mode of presentation more or less to fit traditional practices. This scattering of the argr1ments has by now made it awkward for others to see how all the pieces of the jig-saw fit together, to a point where we have felt it necessary to put together the whole thing between the same covers.

Nowadays few of us have the wish to follow extensive arguments in detail, the peaceful days of Trollope’s Barchester Towers being long since gone. It has therefore seemed best to break-up the whole into small sections, as in the entries of a catalogue, entries which can be read singly in isolation from the rest. Besides being an advantage to the reader, such a procedure avoids the temptation to support one argument with another too much, a procedure that can easily become like drunks supporting each other at a party. To compile our catalogue we have divided the entire subject into nine principal sections, giving them the letters A, B, C, D, E, I, M, O and P, with the following designations:-

A	=	Atmosphere (terrestrial)
B	=	Bacteria and other microorganisms
C	=	Comets
D	=	Diseases
E	=	Evolution (biological)
I	=	Interstellar grains
M	=	Meteorites
O	=	Origin of life
P	=	Planets

Within each of these main sections, subsections are classified numerically, as A1, A2, ………. for instance. Tables and figures are named according to the subsection in which they occur, Table A 1.1, Table A 1.2, Figure M 1.1, Figure M 1.2, ………… and so on. A similar system is used for the pagination. The subsections are cross-referenced wherever an explicit mention of the inter-relation of the arguments seemed unavoidable. References are given in the text as they occur.

Fred Hoyle
Chandra Wickramasinghe

CONTENTS

A1The Safe Entry of Microorganisms the Earth’s Atmosphere

A2The Amount of Particles Entering the Earth’s Atmosphere

A3An Explicit Detection of Bacteria in the High Terrestrial Atmosphere

A4The Time of Fall of Bacteria through Still Air in the Stratosphere

A5The Fall of Virus-sized Particles through the Stratosphere

B1The Hardihood of Bacteria

B2The Resistance of Microorganisms to Ionizing Radiation

B3The Resistance of Microorganisms to Ultraviolet Light

B4The Disadaptation of Microorganisms

B5The Size-Distribution of Bacteria

B6Chemoautotrophic Bacteria

C1The Composition of the Volatile Fraction of Comets

C2The Size Distribution of Cometary Material and its Relation to the Arrival of Microorganisms at the Earth

C3Observational Data for Particles Evaporated from Comets

C4Cometary Periodicities of Relevance to the Incidence of Microorganisms Onto the Earth

C5The Rate of Evaporation of Water-based Volatile Materials from Cometary Bodies

C6Radiation Pressure on Microorganisms of Cometary Origin

D1The Arrival of Space-Borne Microorganisms at the Earth’s Surface

D2Some Dubious Claims for the Horizontal Transmission of Pathogens

D3Evidence for the Vertical Incidence of Influenza A

D4Evidence Against the Horizontal Transmission of Influenza A

D5The Black Death

D6Comets and Superstitions

D7The History of Diseases

D8Plague at Athens

E1Evolution, a Brief History of the Darwinian Theory

E2The Neo-Darwinians

E3Punctuated Equilibria or Punctuated Geology ?

E4Evolution by Gene-Addition

E5Genetics in Open and Closed Systems

E6Favourable Mutations in Open Systems

E7The Survival and the Extinction of Closed Systems

E8The Origin of Closed Systems

E9Phylogenetic Trees

I1Interstellar Extinction Data in the Visual and Ultraviolet

I2Proof that Ultraviolet Absorption Near λ = 2200 Å Arises from Small Particles of Free Carbon

I3Proof that Essentially no Water-Ice Grains are Present in the Distributed Interstellar Medium

I4Proof that Grains Responsible for Extinction by Scattering are not Mineral Silicates

I5Proof that Grains Responsible for Extinction by Scattering are Bacteria which May or May Not be Viable

I6Further Proof that Interstellar Grains are Biological in Origin

I7The Silicate Band at 10 μm

M1Proof that Life Antedated the Earth

M2The Stereochemistry of Amino Acids in Meteorites

O1Precambrian Life

O2The Origin of Life, An Elusive Concept

O3Stirring the Soup

O4The Virtue of Uncertainty

P1Mars

P2Refractive Indices of Wet and Dry Bacteria

P3venus

A

Atmosphere (terrestrial)

A 1The Safe Entry of Microorganisms into the Earth’s Atmosphere

Particles are least heated when they enter the atmosphere at a glancing angle, in the fashion of returning astronauts The present authors obtained the formula :

for a spherical particle (Diseases from Space, page 171, J. M. Dent 1979), where a is the particle radius, o = 5.669 × 10⁻⁵ is the Stefan-Boltzmann constant, T in degrees K is the temperature of a flash heating of the particle which lasts for a few seconds, v is the entry speed, H the atmospheric scale height at the altitude where the particle is effectively decelerated, and R is the radius of the Earth (which appears because of the glancing angle of entry).

Microorganisms can probably withstand a short flash heating for values of T up to 500 K. Putting this temperature value in A1.1, together with R = 6378 km, and setting H = 20 km for an altitude of 130 to 140 km above the Earth’s surface (where small particles are stopped) the maximum radius of safe entry for a microorganisms can be calculated if v is known. The largest microorganisms for which safe entry is permitted occurs when v is least. For a particle of cometary origin v is least when the following conditions are satisfied :

(i)The plane of the comet’s orbit around the Sun is the same as the plane of the Earth’s orbit.

(ii)The perihelion distance of the comet is the same as the radius of the Earth’s orbit.

(iii)The comet is in direct motion around the Sun.

When these conditions are satisfied v is about 10 km per second, and equation A1.1 gives a ≃ 30 μm. (Note that it is unnecessary to increase v because of the attraction of terrestrial gravity. The reason is given in the above reference.).

The coefficient 24 appearing in equation A1.1 is specific to a particle of spherical shape. For a rod-shaped particle with 2a the rod diameter the coefficient is changed to 16, giving a maximum rod diameter of about 40 μm. In this case there is no restriction on the length of the rod. This upper limit of ∼ 40 μm is calculated for a blunt-nosed particle. Organisms that happned to have favourable aerodynamic shapes could be several times larger still, say with diameters of ∼ 100 μm.

When v has its least value there is evidently no restriction on the entry of viruses, bacteria and typical eukaryotic cells. Even whole colonies of bacteria could be admitted, as well as microfungi and most protozoa. If one is concerned with the long-term population of the Earth by microorganisms of extraterrestrial origin, it is the case where v is least that is most relevant (because in a long-term situation one can wait for the most favourable case to arise) but if one is concerned with a short-term pathogenic attack by a microorganisms then v should be given a typical value of 30 to 40 km per second, in which case A1.1 leads to a maximum diameter for safe entry of about 1 μm, in good agreement with the diameters of micrococci. For rod-shaped bacteria 2/3 μm is a typical diameter for safe entry. For rod-shaped bacteria there is again no restriction on their lengths.

A 2.The Amount of Particles Entering the Earth’s Atmosphere

The amount of small particles entering the Earth’s atmosphere from interplanetary space is usually estimated to be about 1,000 tons per year. The mean geocentric velocity of larger particles, visual or radar meteors, is about 40 km per sec. If the small particles also have this mean geocentric speed, an influx of 1,000 tons per year would imply an interplanetary density of ∼ 10⁻²³g cm⁻³, a reasonable value.

The most direct evidence of the composition of small particles entering the atmosphere was obtained by D. E. Brownlee (Protostars and Planets, ed. T. Gehrels, Univ. of Arizona, 1978), who found a Cl carbonaceous chondritic composition for particles with overall diameters of ∼ 10 μm which were collected in U-2 flights and then subjected to laboratory examination. The Cl composition implied that the particles were of cometary origin.

If one combines Brownlee’s result with the discovery of microoganisms in the Murchison meteorite by H. D. Pflug (private communication) a considerable fraction of the ∼ 5 per cent concentration of carbon found by Brownlee would seem to have had a biological origin. This conclusion is supported by the remarkable similarity between a sticklike object present in one of Brownlee’s particles and bacterium found in Murchison by Pflug.

If one says that ∼ 1 per cent of the mass of the particles is carbon of biological origin, the mass of microorganisms entering the Earth’s atmosphere would be of the order of 10 tons per year. While microorganisms in the larger particles would be cauterised by heat, those in smaller particles would survive, and since the latter probably contribute a considerable fraction of the total, the surviving microorganisms could well have a combined mass of the order of 10 tons per year, giving an entry of viable bacteria of ∼ 10²⁰ per year, and a possible entry of viruses some two to three powers of ten greater still. If such microorganisms survive descent through the atmosphere, the vertical incidence at ground level would be ∼10⁵ bacteria m⁻² yr⁻¹, and perhaps ∼ 10⁷ viruses m⁻² yr⁻¹, sufficient to be detectable especially if incident microorganisms are pathogenic to plants or animals, in which case there would be a large multiplication of numbers in the bodies of their victims.

Reference to equation A1.1 shows that particles with radii above 1 mm entering the atmosphere at a typical speed of 40 km per sec are flash-heated to their evaporation temperatures. These are the visual meteors. G A. Harvey (Astrophys. J., 1977, 217, 688) observed a strong spectral feature at 3100 A in the radiation emitted by a visual meteor of the α Capricornid stream. The feature was attributed to hydroxyl (OH) derived from dissociated water. While this does not prove the presence of water in smaller particles, it is indicative that water may well be present.

A 3.An Explicit Detection of Bacteria in the High Terrestrial Atmosphere

In Mikrobiologiya, 1979, 48, 1066, S. V. Lysenko describes an experiment designed to sample the atmosphere for micro-organisms at heights above the stratopause, i.e. at altitudes above ∼ 50 km. Rockets fired into the high atmosphere expelled the detection equipment attached to a parachute. Film was exposed over various height ranges, with particles collected on the film being sealed as the equipment descended out of the height range in question. Recovered film was then examined in the laboratory for viable microorganisms.

Fig. A 3.1.–Shaded areas show altitude ranges of recovery for various microorganisms in the atmosphere according to S.V. Lysenko (1979)

After three such flights, some thirty cultures were grown of bacteria obtained from altitutdes ranging from about 50 km up to 75 km. The several cultures identified by Lysenko are shown in Fig. A3.1 as a plot of species against altitude of recovery. The cultures were said to be very heavily pigmented, a circumstance attributed to the need of the organisms to withstand unshielded solar ultra-violet radiation at heights above the ozone layer.

Much of Lysenko’s paper is concerned with a discussion of why the author considers there could have been no contamination to vitiate his results. The author attributes the recovered bacteria to a large desert storm in which microorganisms were carried upward through the stratosphere, a supposition which seems unlikely in view of the great vertical stability of air in the ozone layer, a stability conferred by a strong termperature inversion. Other than an origin from space, the only suggestion consistent with atmospheric physics we have heard is that surface ba...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Proofs that Life is Cosmic (December 1982)