Transcript of the Presentation Given by Francis A. Andrew to the Indian School, Nizwa, Oman, on January 21st 2013.Edit Ratings: (0)|Views: 7|Likes: 0 Published by FrancisAndrew The subject of the talk was Astrobiology, a field which is coming ever more into the realm of mainstream science and scientific thought. This talk contained what was at the time breaking news in the discoveries made concerning the Pollonaruwa meteorite which fell over the town by that name in Sri Lanka. The pupils of the Indian School in Nizwa were the first people in the Middle East to be given this exciting news, and I had the privilege of conveying it to them. More info: categoriesPresentations Published by: FrancisAndrew on Mar 13, 2014 Copyright:Attribution Non-commercial Downloads: 0 Availability: Read on Scribd mobile: iPhone, iPad and Android. Free download as PDF, DOCX, TXT or read online for free from Scribd Add to collection See less The two scientists next turned their attention to the outbreak of the Spanish flu of 1918. As you all probably know, this influenza pandemic killed millions of people throughout the world. They discovered in historic/epidemiological researches that the outbreak of this flu occurred simultaneously in New York and Bombay. Now bear in mind that in 1918 aviation was still in its infancy and there was no international air travel. It was also noted that the epidemic did not affect Boston, which is close to New York, until three weeks later – and yet there was a limited amount of air travel between the two cities. Hoyle and Wickramasinghe also examined the spread of the flu virus in Alaska. As I’m sure you all know, Alaska is the largest state in the American Union. It is a vast territory covering an area of nearly 664,000 square miles, yet the disease spread rapidly throughout Alaska – reaching communities well ahead of visits from medical personnel. There are also instances of people such as shepherds who abide in remote places and go for weeks without any human contact coming down with flu viruses. Yet there can be cases whereby some members of a family become infected while others remain free of the disease in spite of their living in close proximity to one another. These examples clearly indicate that it is very difficult to account for the spread of the virus in terms of human to human transmission processes. So, sickness and disease are the effects that bacteria is now having on the Earth – but what about the past? Hoyle and Wickramasinghe looked at what impact extraterrestrial bacteria might have had on the evolutionary process. You are all no doubt familiar with the theory of evolution as postulated by Charles Darwin. Darwin explained evolution in terms of species change occurring in gradual incremental steps over millions and billions of years. If this were the mechanism for evolution, we would expect to find millions of intermediate species between the main-line species. Unfortunately, the fossil record does not bear this out. There were no intermediate species found in Darwin’s day and there are no intermediate species prevalent in the fossil layers today – 154 years after the publication of Origin of Species. The fossil record provides no evidence for the myriad of intermediate species that should exist if the Darwinian form of evolution were the right one. The missing links are still missing! What the fossil record does show though, is the sudden extinction of species and the sudden emergence of others. The question then is as to what exactly the mechanism is for this phenomenon. According to Hoyle and Wickramasinghe, it is incoming pathogens arriving from outer space. These pathogens will cause massive terrestrial pandemics which will result in the extermination of species. However, some stronger and hardier animals will be able to overcome the diseases; not only will they survive but they will take advantage of the new genetic material from outer space and incorporate it into their own DNA – they will then quickly move up to the next rung in the ladder of evolution and so constitute the next mainline species. One of the mechanisms argued to account for the Darwinian form of evolution has been that of genetic mutation. Most mutations are detrimental to the human species and cause such defects as Down’s Syndrome, but some mutations may be beneficial. While beneficial mutations is a valid way of looking at the evolutionary process, it can only explain what is general ly termed “micro - evolution” – minor adaptive changes within the same species. However, beneficial mutations cannot explain “macro - evolutionary” processes. Why is this you might ask? Let us use the lego set as an analogy: as you know, you can use the rubber pieces of the lego set to make all kinds of contraptions from simple to sophisticated. But no matter how intricately designed your lego art may be, your creations will never move, fly or swim in any sort of unassisted mechanical way. If you desired motion from your lego designs, you would have to introduce something outside of the lego set – you would require some sort of metallic engine in order to achieve locomotion. So it is the same with mutational based evolution; it will produce many varieties within the same species but will not create new species. This will require an input of new genetic material – and logically that can only come from extraterrestrial sources. Confirmation that biological activity exists outside of the Earth would require from the human mind nothing less than a paradigm shift in the way we currently understand the Universe. Instead of studying the Universe only in terms of physics, astrophysics, chemistry and mechanics, it would be necessary for astronomers to give biology a much more important place in their endeavours to explain the nature of the cosmos, for life could no longer be considered as being something peripheral to the cosmological scheme of things but rather as a phenomenon interwoven into the very fabric and structure of the Universe. It will be necessary to understand the Universe as essentially a biological entity where life is not thought of as some marginal event but rather as having the prominent place as the very soul of the vast cosmos itself. Breaking News. Since I prepared the talk I have just delivered to you, there have been some exciting new developments in the area of Astrobiology and I want the Indian School in Nizwa to be the first in Oman to hear about it. Professor N. Chandra Wichramasinghe et al, in the Journal of Astrobiology, ( January 10 th & 13 th ) related that a cometary fragment in the form of a meteorite created a fireball in the sky over the town of Pollonaruwa in Sri Lanka. This amazing phenomenon caused red rain to fall. If there are any Keralans among you, you will probably remember that Kerala experienced the same phenomenon back in 2009. When some samples of the red rain from Pollonaruwa were examined at the Medical Research Institute ( MRI ) in Colombo, they were found to contain biological cells. Studies of the meteorite fragments revealed structures morphologically similar to the cells in the red rain. Even more exciting was the discovery of not only fossilised diatoms but actual living ones. If this is confirmed in the near future, mainstream science has no choice but to take Astrobiology in from the cold! While what appears to be fossilised bacterial spores have been found in various extraterrestrial geological fragments – such as the Murchison Meteorite and the Mars Rock - this is the first time that viable biological specimens have been recovered from a rock of meteoric origin. As you will probably know from your biology classes here, diatoms are of the phytoplankton class of which seaweed is a typical example. Activity (0) Filters Add to collectionAdd noteLikeEmbed No activity yet More From This User Diseases From Space. FrancisAndrew
Posted on: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 07:49:32 +0000
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