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Astronomical Origins of Life

Steps Towards Panspermia

  • Book
  • © 2000

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Editors:
  1. F. Hoyle

    1. Department of Applied Mathematics and Astronomy, University College, Cardiff, UK

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  2. N. C. Wickramasinghe

    1. Department of Applied Mathematics and Astronomy, University College, Cardiff, UK

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Table of contents (44 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-viii
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  2. Panspermia 2000

    1. Panspermia 2000

      • F. Hoyle, N. C. Wickramasinghe
      Pages 1-17

  3. General Considerations

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 19-19
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    2. On a Possibly Fundamental Principle in Chemistry as Viewed in a Cosmogonic Context

      • F. Hoyle, N. C. Wickramasinghe
      Pages 21-31

    3. Biological Activity in the Early Solar System in its Outer Regions

      • F. Hoyle, N. C. Wickramasinghe
      Pages 33-41

    4. An Object within a Particle of Extraterrestrial Origin Compared with an Object of Presumed Terrestrial Origin

      • F. Hoyle, N. C. Wickramasinghe, Hans D. Pflug
      Pages 43-44

    5. The Viability with Respect to Temperature of Micro-Organisms Incident on the Earth’s Atmosphere

      • F. Hoyle, N. C. Wickramasinghe, S. Al-Mufti
      Pages 45-50

    6. A Laboratory Experiment with Relevance to the Survival of Micro-Organisms Entering a Planetary Atmosphere

      • S. Al-Mufti, F. Hoyle, N. C. Wickramasinghe
      Pages 51-53

    7. Biological Evolution

      • F. Hoyle, N. C. Wickramasinghe
      Pages 55-75

    8. Metallic Particles in Astronomy

      • F. Hoyle, N. C. Wickramasinghe
      Pages 77-88

    9. The Universe and Life: Deductions from the Weak Anthropic Principle

      • F. Hoyle, N. C. Wickramasinghe
      Pages 89-102

    10. Miller-Urey Synthesis in the Nuclei of Galaxies

      • N. C. Wickramasinghe, F. Hoyle
      Pages 103-107

  4. Cosmic Organic Polymers

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 109-109
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    2. Formaldehyde Polymers in Interstellar Space

      • N. C. Wickramasinghe
      Pages 111-114

    3. Formaldehyde Polymers in Comets

      • V. Vanysek, N. C. Wickramasinghe
      Pages 115-124

    4. Composition of Cometary Dust: The Case Against Silicates

      • D. A. Mendis, N. C. Wickramasinghe
      Pages 125-128

    5. Primitive Grain Clumps and Organic Compounds in Carbonaceous Chondrites

      • F. Hoyle, N. C. Wickramasinghe
      Pages 129-132

    6. Spectroscopic Evidence for Interstellar Grain Clumps in Meteoritic Inclusions

      • A. Sakata, N. Nakagawa, T. Iguchi, S. Isobe, M. Morimoto, F. Hoyle et al.
      Pages 133-135

    7. Calculations of Infrared Fluxes from Galactic Sources for a Polysaccharide Grain Model

      • F. Hoyle, N. C. Wickramasinghe
      Pages 137-154

  5. Cosmic Micro-Organisms: Infrared Characterisation

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 155-155
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Keywords

About this book

Living material contains about twenty different sorts of atom combined into a set of relatively simple molecules. Astrobiologists tend to believe that abiotic mater­ ial will give rise to life in any place where these molecules exist in appreciable abundances and where physical conditions approximate to those occurring here on Earth. We think this popular view is wrong, for it is not the existence of the building blocks of life that is crucial but the exceedingly complicated structures in which they are arranged in living forms. The probability of arriving at biologically significant arrangements is so very small that only by calling on the resources of the whole universe does there seem to be any possibility of life originating, a conclusion that requires life on the Earth to be a minute component of a universal system. Some think that the hugely improbable transition from non-living to living mat­ ter can be achieved by dividing the transition into many small steps, calling on a so-called 'evolutionary' process to bridge the small steps one by one. This claim turns on semantic arguments which seek to replace the probability for the whole chain by the sum of the individual probabilities of the many steps, instead of by their product. This is an error well known to those bookies who are accustomed to taking bets on the stacking of horse races. But we did not begin our investigation from this point of view.

Editors and Affiliations

  • Department of Applied Mathematics and Astronomy, University College, Cardiff, UK

    F. Hoyle, N. C. Wickramasinghe

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Astronomical Origins of Life

  • Book Subtitle: Steps Towards Panspermia

  • Editors: F. Hoyle, N. C. Wickramasinghe

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4297-7

  • Publisher: Springer Dordrecht

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

  • Copyright Information: Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2000

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-7923-6081-0Published: 30 April 2000

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-94-010-5862-9Published: 13 October 2012

  • eBook ISBN: 978-94-011-4297-7Published: 06 December 2012

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: VIII, 381

  • Additional Information: Reprinted from ASTROPHYSICS AND SPACE SCIENCE, 268:1-3

  • Topics: Astronomy, Observations and Techniques, Evolutionary Biology, Microbial Ecology, Paleontology

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