9. Panspermia and the Open System

Noted astrophysicist/mathematicians F. Hoyle and N.C. Wickramasinghe make numerous points in their research. The three most credible are:

1) Life in the form of microbes (bacteria and viruses) pervades the universe in the interior of comets, meteorites and in clouds of interstellar dust.

2) Life from outer space was delivered to the early Earth so that the origin of Earthly life is extraterrestrial.

3) Extraterrestrial microbes have continued to be delivered to Earth in the form of comet dust and interstellar dust filtering through the atmosphere to the Earth's surface.

The ideas of Hoyle and Wickramasinghe have gained a surprising degree of acceptance among well-credentialed scientists affiliated with prestigious institutions. For example, their ideas pervade the 1999 conference proceedings for the International Society of Optical Engineering (SPIE).[90] Optical engineers are relevant experts because they design and operate the microscopes of extremely high magnification that can pick up the faint traces that life (arguably) has left in the interior of meteorites. A professor geochemistry in 1990 reviewed the relevant findings regarding points 1 and 2 above and concluded, "... it is felt that a panspermistic approach to the initiation of life processes on Earth would not appear outside the mainstream of contemporary scientific thought."[91]

Most of the ideas of Hoyle and Wickramasinghe are expressed as empirically verifiable hypotheses. We shall address each theoretical contention and its empirical verification. What follows is, of necessity, a brief coverage of a lifetime of work by two extremely keen minds who benefited from frequent collaboration of co-authors from applicable disciplines.

Hoyle and Wickramasinghe envision the Earth as an open system. Genesis either occurred on Earth and was spread to the rest of the universe or, life started somewhere else and eventually extraterrestrial bacteria gained a foothold on Earth. Hence, at the outset, a crucial input or output of matter occurred. If continued input of extraterrestrial microbes is essential to the evolution of life, then inputs of matter are essential to the continued viability of the biosphere subsystem.