Evidence for panspermia theory

Wow have any of you heard of this? Comments?

http://www.newswales.co.uk/?section=Education&F=1&id=8530

Red rain may prove life came from outer space
6/3/2006

Groundbreaking ideas pioneered by a Cardiff University
astronomer about the origins of life on earth appeared as
the cover story in last week's New Scientist.

Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe and his colleague, the
late Sir Fred Hoyle, argued that life on earth was
originated by comets. Although greeted with scepticism at
first, this theory is becoming recognised as eminently
plausible.

Recent discoveries of complex organic molecules in comets
and
interstellar dust clouds have provided striking evidence
of life originating on a greater cosmic scale than just on
Earth. Microbiologists are also finding properties of
bacteria that show they can survive the harshest
conditions of space.

The cover story in New Scientist describes a report by
Indian
scientists that 50 tonnes of microbes fell in the form of
red rain, following a sonic meteor burst, over a large
area of the state Kerala in July 2001. Their published
investigations show the presence of red-coloured living
cells, which have no DNA. The scientists claim that the
red microbes in the rain were alien microbes discharged
into the atmosphere from an exploding piece of a comet.

Prof. Wickramasinghe said, "These results are very
exciting but more work needs to be done on the samples in
independent laboratories to test the claim of DNA-less
bacteria. If life did not originate on Earth but came from
comets, as the evidence now seems to indicate, it is
entirely reasonable that the process of comets bringing
microbial life to our planet continues even to the present
day. Whether or not the "microbes" in the red rain came
from space or not has yet to be proved, however."

The Indian scientists have now sent samples of the red
rain to Cardiff where Professor Wickramasinghe has
arranged for investigations with Dr. Gordon Webster and
research student Nori Miyake, while at Sheffield these
will be done by microbiologist Dr. Milton Wainwright.

Cardiff has a large and successful School of Physics and
Astronomy, attracting some 300 undergraduate and
postgraduate students. Physics research is focused in two
areas: condensed matter physics and optoelectronics.

Researchers are using theoretical and practical techniques
to answer fundamental questions about the electrical,
magnetic and optical properties of new semiconducting
materials and investigating the design and fabrication of
new optoelectronic devices. The School has extensive
facilities for building and investigating devices made
from these new materials. The most spectacular results
come from ultra-thin sandwich structures. The novel
properties of these devices are being exploited in the
design of lasers and detectors.

For researchers and students of astronomy, the School
offers modern astronomical laboratories with optical,
radio and solar telescopes. The University's Astrophysics
Research Group and the Astronomy Instrumentation Research
Group are two of the most vigorous in the UK. Members of
the groups regularly use the three main British
observatories in Hawaii, the Canary Islands and Australia,
and they also use the Hubble Space Telescope and other
space observatories.

There is also an active theory group that uses computers
to investigate the physics of stars and galaxies, and a
group developing techniques for detecting gravitational
waves, a prediction of Einstein's theory of General
Relativity.
Received on Mon Mar 6 14:59:58 2006