Overview

Two of the pioneers of the modern version of panspermia - the theory that comets disperse microbial life throughout the cosmos - trace the development of their ideas through a sequence of key papers. A logical progression of thought is shown to lead up to the currently accepted viewpoint that at least the biochemical building blocks of life must have derived from comets. The authors go further, however, to argue that not just the chemicals of life, but fully-fledged microbial cells have an origin that is external to the Earth. Such a theory of cosmic life, once established, would have profound scientific as well as sociological implications.

Full Product Details

Author:   B. Hoyle ,  N.C. Wickramasinghe
Publisher:   Springer
Imprint:   Springer
Edition:   Reprinted from ASTROPHYSICS AND SPACE SCIENCE, 268:1-3
Dimensions:   Width: 15.50cm , Height: 2.20cm , Length: 23.50cm
Weight:   1.600kg
ISBN:  

9780792360810

ISBN 10:   0792360818
Pages:   381
Publication Date:   30 April 2000
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Panspermia 2000.- 1. General Considerations.- On a Possibly Fundamental Principle in Chemistry as Viewed in a Cosmogonic Context.- Biological Activity in the Early Solar System in its Outer Regions.- An Object within a Particle of Extraterrestrial Origin Compared with an Object of Presumed Terrestrial Origin.- The Viability with Respect to Temperature of Micro-Organisms Incident on the Earth’s Atmosphere.- A Laboratory Experiment with Relevance to the Survival of Micro-Organisms Entering a Planetary Atmosphere.- Biological Evolution.- Metallic Particles in Astronomy.- The Universe and Life: Deductions from the Weak Anthropic Principle.- Miller-Urey Synthesis in the Nuclei of Galaxies.- 2. Cosmic Organic Polymers.- Formaldehyde Polymers in Interstellar Space.- Formaldehyde Polymers in Comets.- Composition of Cometary Dust: the Case against Silicates.- Primitive Grain Clumps and Organic Compounds in Carbonaceous Chondrites.- Spectroscopic Evidence for Interstellar Grain Clumps in Meteoritic Inclusions.- Calculations of Infrared Fluxes from Galactic Sources for a Polysaccharide Grain Model.- 3. Cosmic Micro-Organisms: Infrared Characterisation.- Infrared Spectroscopy of Micro-Organisms Near 3.4 ?m in Relation to Geology and Astronomy.- Infrared Spectroscopy over the 2.9-3.9 ?m Waveband in Biochemistry and Astronomy.- 2.8-3.6 ?m Spectra of Micro-Organisms with Varying H2O Ice-Content.- Organo-Siliceous Biomolecules and the Infrared Spectrum of the Trapezium Nebula.- The Spectroscopic Identification of Interstellar Grains.- The Availability of Phosphorus in the Bacterial Model of the Interstellar Grains.- Diatoms on Earth, Comets, Europa an. i. Interstellar Space.- A Diatom Model of Dust in the Trapezium Nebula.- Infrared Evidence for Panspermia: An Update.- 4. Evidencefrom Interstellar Extinction.- On the Nature of Interstellar Grains.- A Model for Interstellar Extinction.- The Ultraviolet Absorbance of Presumably Interstellar Bacteria and Related Matters.- The Case against Graphite Particles in Interstellar Space.- 5. Biogenic Aromatic Molecules in Space.- Organic Molecules in Interstellar Dust: A Possible Spectral Signature at ?.2200Å?.- Identification of the ? 2 200 Å Interstellar Absorption Feature.- A Unified Model for the 3.28 ? Emission and the 2200 Å Interstellar Extinction Feature.- Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Very Small Interstellar Grains.- An Integrated 2.5-12.5 ?m Emission Spectrum of Naturally-Occurring Aromatic Molecules.- Biofluorescence and the Extended Red Emission in Astrophysical Sources.- 6. Comets and Life.- Comets, Ice Ages, and Ecological Catastrophes.- Comets - A Vehicle for Panspermia.- Some Predictions on the Nature of Comet Halley.- A Model of the 2-1 ?m Spectrum of Comet Halley.- Modelling the 5-30 ?ectrum of Comet Halley.- Very Small Dust Particles (VSDP’met C/19962 B2 (Hyakutake).- The Astonishing Redness of Kuiper-Belt Objects.- Eruptions of Comet Hale-Bopp at 6.5 AU.- Infrared Radiation from Comet Hale-Bopp.

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