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IT ONLY TAKES A TINY FRACTION. “A minuscule (10(−21)) survival rate of freeze-dried bacteria in space is all that is needed to ensure the continual re-cycling of cosmic microbial life in the galaxy. Evidence that terrestrial life may have come from elsewhere in the solar system has accumulated over the past decade.” (Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe, 2004). https://lnkd.in/dFRBz2F View in LinkedIn

“PANSPERMIA, an ancient idea, posits that microbial life is ubiquitous in the Universe. After several decades of almost irrational rejection, panspermia is at last coming to be regarded as a serious contender for the beginnings of life on our planet. Astronomical data is shown to be consistent with the widespread distribution of complex organic molecules and dust particles that may have a biological" "provenance.” (Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe, 2004). https://lnkd.in/dFRBz2F View in LinkedIn

THE QUESTION FRAMED. “The idea that in the whole Universe life is unique to the Earth is essentially pre-Copernican. Experience has now repeatedly taught us that this type of thinking is very likely wrong. Why should our own infinitesimal niche in the Universe be unique?” (Fred Hoyle & Chandra Wickramasinghe, Lifecloud, 1968) https://lnkd.in/dKwTbHA View in LinkedIn

COMPELLED TO FOLLOW THE DATA. “I was hesitating from taking the step of supposing diseases came from comets, still fearing ridicule, still hearing in my imagination the derisive laughter of university commonrooms (overlaid by a pervasive clink of coffee cups) when at last I was swayed by a curious and seemingly inconsequential detail.” (Professor Fred Hoyle). A passage that is hard to forget, https://lnkd.in/d6s_-HE View in LinkedIn

IT STARTED WITH INTERSTELLAR DUST. The speculations of Fred Hoyle & Chandra Wickramasinghe started with the unlikely subject of interstellar dust. Who would devote a chunk of their life to the study of such a subject? As unlikely a start to astrobiology, this was the beginning, most famously in the then outrageous idea that much of this dust was composed of desiccated bacteria and viruses. View in LinkedIn

IT STARTED WITH DARWIN. Here is a stunning factoid. Before Darwin’s 1859 book, On the Origin of the Species, which suggested life arose in a warm pond, nobody in Western society questioned the origin of life, which was deemed to be God-given. The answer to this question was simply taken as a given. Ancient peoples the world over had creation myths, but these became suffused under the blanket of orthodox christian thinking in the West for about two thousand years. Genesis became our dominant myth. View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE focuses on a very unusual white paper by Professor Jason T. Wright about the state of affairs in exobiology, the search for extraterrestrial life, astonishingly endorsed by 126 prominent people from academia, NASA, SETI, observatories, and industry. This section starts by five of quotes from the late Professor Fred Hoyle & Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe, while at Cambridge University, the two truly remarkable scholars who set in motion the modern resurgence of Panspermia back in the 1970s; this topic is the sad mirror of humanity’s self-fixation that has (nearly) obliterated our curiosity. http://www.lifefromspace.com/Another-Beginning/Life-Cloud/ View in LinkedIn

THE TRUE BACKWATER. “Indeed, many in the public would be surprised to learn that the field is not part of the publicly-funded science portfolio, and how few scientists are actually involved in the search. The reasons for this are varied, but are ultimately social, not scientific.” https://lnkd.in/djnMhU6 View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE focuses on a very unusual white paper by Professor Jason T. Wright about the state of affairs in exobiology, the search for extraterrestrial life, astonishingly endorsed by 126 prominent people from academia, NASA, SETI, observatories, and industry. This section starts by five of quotes from the late Professor Fred Hoyle & Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe, while at Cambridge University, the two truly remarkable scholars who set in motion the modern resurgence of Panspermia back in the 1970s; this topic is the sad mirror of humanity’s self-fixation that has (nearly) obliterated our curiosity. https://lnkd.in/dTcBWgy View in LinkedIn

NEW AWAKENINGS. “The past 10 years have seen a resurgence in searches for extraterrestrial intelligence. Some of the drivers for this include: The Big Data revolution; The privately-financed Breakthrough Listen Initiative.” But no systematic search for extraterrestrial biology. https://lnkd.in/djnMhU6 View in LinkedIn