Germs from Outer Space! Researchers Say Flu Bugs Rain Down from Beyond

July 17, 2004

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/planetearth/flu_in_space_000121.html

Your stomach cramps up. Fever skyrockets. Your whole body aches. And it's not just you. An influenza pandemic has broken out. Everybody is passing it to everybody. Right?

Maybe not. It could be that increasingly frequent sunspots are driving the virus out of the stratosphere and into your body.

So say Sir Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe of the University of Wales at Cardiff. And while there is much doubt by many other scientists that the flu comes from space, Hoyle and Wickramasinghe are generating a lot of interest with their idea.

In a new paper, to be published in an upcoming issue of the Indian journal Current Science, the researchers present data that show how previous periods of high sunspot activity coincided with flu pandemics (large-scale epidemics). A roughly 11-year cycle of solar activity is increasing now and is expected to peak soon, other scientists agree.

Hoyle and Wickramasinghe say we can expect another flu pandemic to accompany the solar peak "within weeks." By that claim, perhaps debate over their research will soon be settled

Injecting the flu into our atmosphere

The researchers say that the virus, or a trigger that causes it, is deposited throughout space by dust in the debris stream of comets, which are thought by many researchers to harbor organic material. As Earth passes through the stream, dust (and perhaps the virus) enters our atmosphere, where it can lodge for two decades or more, until gravity pulls it down.

"The intense solar activity at sunspot maximum that causes bright displays of aurorae also has the effect of driving viral particles or their triggers rapidly to ground level," the researchers say.

Ionized gas from solar flares is channeled to Earth along magnetic field lines. The flow of charged particles emanating from the sun generates electrical fields across the stratosphere, accelerating the down-flow of virus or triggering mechanisms, Wickramasinghe explained in a telephone interview. In lower levels of the atmosphere, the particles condense, ultimately coming down in raindrops.

They cite previous global epidemics as evidence that human contact does not account for the spread of influenza. In 1918, an outbreak occurred on the same day in Bombay and Boston, yet took another three weeks to spread to New York. This occurred, Hoyle and Wickramasinghe argue, because the virus can float down in patches.

While Hoyle and Wickramasinghe have their supporters, some researchers say the idea is flat wrong.

"There is scant evidence of any science going on here," said Stanford University physicist Christopher Barrington-Leigh, who studies the upper atmosphere and lower ionosphere. "According to the authors, solar activity 'will undoubtedly assist in the descent of charged molecular aggregates,' but this is unphysical and unfounded."

"Despite addressing a possibly interesting topic, the authors have several factual errors, inconsistent and completely undeveloped theories, a distinct lack of logic, and an alarmist rather than scientific perspective," Barrington-Leigh told space.com.

Panspermia

Among those who support the idea of panspermia -- that the seeds of life are everywhere -- Hoyle and Wickramasinghe have their supporters.

"In the 1970s, Hoyle and Wickramasinghe began to suspect that life on Earth could have come from space," says Brig Klyce, who studies cosmic ancestry and panspermia. "If so, wouldn't it still be coming? They decided to look for evidence that the germs causing plagues and epidemics come from space."

Klyce notes that several studies point to the presence of complex organics in space. "Mainsteam science scoffs, but biology is a possible source for these chemicals," he says. "If there is life, like bacteria and viruses in space, some of it would naturally fall to Earth."

Other researchers agree that comet dust may harbor organic matter, and even that it could transport it into Earth's atmosphere. But during a fiery entry, the organic matter's survival is questionable.

Touched by space dust

Matthew Genge, of the Department of Mineralogy at the London Natural History Museum, has estimated the amount of comet dust that survives entry into the lower atmosphere, and thus how frequently an average-sized human might be struck.

Genge figures that if you live to be 5,000 years old, you'll likely encounter one comet dust particle. Were it to harbor a virus, you would presumably have to inhale the particle, further reducing the odds of infection.

"Comet dust particles constantly rain from the skies -- around a hundred thousand billion particles per year -- and some of these will fall on people," Genge told space.com, adding that the extremely light particles would probably not be noticed.

Genge said that some of the dust particles could contain bio-molecules.

"Although these chemicals are the basic building blocks of DNA and thus life, they are far from being viruses," Genge said. "Coughs and sneezes are thus unlikely to be a sign of a close encounter with a tiny visitor from space."