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News

News: September/October 2001

Spacebug Shock from Cardiff • Biker Gang Avenges Camus • The Brains in Bahrain • APA Centenary • Ape Film Angers Humans

Did Life Come from Space?

Scientists at Cardiff University’s Centre for Astrobiology have been analysing samples of material collected from the stratosphere by high-altitude balloons. Results suggest that the samples contain bacteria which may be of extra-terrestrial origin. Efforts are now underway at the centre to grow them and examine their DNA. The samples had been collected in sterile conditions to avoid contamination. Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe has, with others, expounded a controversial theory, known as panspermia, that life originated in space, reaching Earth from the planets.

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