Panspermia

Evidence is reviewed which supports the hypothesis that prokaryotes and eukaryotes may have colonized Mars. One source of Martian life, is Earth. A variety of species remain viable after long term exposure to the radiation intense environment of space, and may survive ejection from Earth following meteor strikes, ejection from the stratosphere and mesosphere via solar winds, and sterilization of Mars-bound spacecraft; whereas simulations studies have shown that prokaryotes, fungi and lichens survive in simulated Martian environments-findings which support the hypothesis life may have been repeatedly transferred from Earth to Mars. Four independent investigators have reported what appears to be fungi and lichens on the Martian surface, whereas a fifth investigator reported what may be cyanobacteria. In another study, a statistically significant majority of 70 experts, after examining Martian specimens photographed by NASA, identified and agreed fungi, basidiomycota ("puffballs"), and lichens may have colonized Mars. Fifteen specimens resembling and identified as "puffballs" were photographed emerging from the ground over a three day period. It is possible these latter specimens are hematite and what appears to be "growth" is due to a strong wind which uncovered these specimens-an explanation which cannot account for before and after photos of what appears to be masses of fungi growing atop and within the Mars rovers. Terrestrial hematite is in part fashioned and cemented together by prokaryotes and fungi, and thus Martian hematite may also be evidence of biology. Three independent research teams have identified sediments on Mars resembling stromatolites and outcroppings having micro meso and macro characteristics typical of terrestrial microbialites constructed by cyanobacteria. Quantitative morphological analysis determined these latter specimens are statistically and physically similar to terrestrial stromatolites. Reports of water, biological residue discovered in Martian meteor ALH84001, the seasonal waning and waxing of atmospheric and ground level Martian methane which on Earth is 90% due to biology and plant growth and decay, and results from the 1976 Mars Viking Labeled Release Experiments indicating biological activity, also support the hypothesis that Mars was, and is, a living planet. Nevertheless, much of the evidence remains circumstantial and unverified, and the possibility of life on Mars remains an open question.

As the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is nearing its eventual end we focus on what we believe are two key omissions from the mainstream scientific literature and which have significant implications for how mankind manages the next global pandemic. We therefore review data, observations, analyses and conclusions from our series of papers published through 2020 and 2021 on its likely cometary origin and global spread. We also revisit our long held understanding of the superior effectiveness of intra-nasal vaccines against respiratory tract pathogens that involve induction of dimeric secretory IgA antibodies. While these two oversights seem disparate, together they provide us with new insights into our collective awareness of how we might view and address the next global pandemic. We begin with our hypothesis of the likely cometary origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus via a bolide strike in the stratosphere on the night of October 11 2019 on the 40o N line over Jilin in NE China. Further global spread most likely occurred via prevailing wind systems transporting both the pristine cometary virus followed by continuing strikes from the same primary source as well as prior human-passaged virus transmitted by person to person spread and through contaminated dust in global wind systems. We also include a discussion of our prior work on data relating to vaccine protective efficacy. Finally we review the totality of evidence concerning the likely origin and global spread of the predominant variants of the virus  ‘Omicron’ (+ Delta mix?) from early to mid-December 2021 and extending into the first week January 2022. We describe the striking data showing the large numbers of infectious cases per day and outline the scale of what appears to be a global pandemic phenomenon, the causes of which are unclear and not completely understood. Firstly, these essentially simultaneous and sudden global-wide epidemic COVID-19 outbreaks, appear to be largely correlated with events external to the Earth, probably causing globally correlated precipitation events. They appear related broadly to “Space Weather” events that render the Earth vulnerable to cosmic pandemic pathogen attack particularly during times of the minima of the Sunspot Solar Cycle which we are now currently passing through.  Secondly, we argue that these sudden global-wide epidemic outbreaks of COVID-19 are specifically largely influenced by global wind transport and deposition mechanisms, the physics of which we need to further explore and comprehend. We conclude on an optimistic note for mankind. Given our prior knowledge of the effectiveness against respiratory tract pathogens of mucosal immunity involving induction of dimeric secretory IgA antibodies, we consider that the recently published intra-nasal vaccine data from laboratories based at the University of California, San Francisco and, independently at Yale University. These latter studies hold out great promise for the future development of both pan-specific and specific immunity against future pandemics caused by suddenly emergent respiratory pathogens, whether viral and bacterial.

We propose that the new coronavirus which first appeared in the Hubei province of China was probably linked to the arrival of a pure culture of the virus contained in cometary debris that was dispersed over a localised area of the planet-China. The sighting of a fireball some 2000 kilometers north of Wuhan on 11 October 2019 followed shortly after with the first recorded cases in Hubei is suggestive of a causal link. Gene sequencing data of the virus that show little or no genetic variations between isolates, combined with available epidemiological data point to the predominance of a transmission process directly from an "infected" environment, with person-to-person transmission playing a comparatively weaker secondary role. The facts relating to this epidemic are discussed and placed in the context of other pandemics that have been recorded throughout history.

Analysis of all genetic, epidemiological and geophysical and astrophysical data suggest the alternate hypothesis that nCoV-2019 arrived via a meteorite, presumed carbonaceous meteorite, that struck North East China on October 11 2019. We then assume the viral debris and particles then made land fall in the Wuhan and related regions about a month to six weeks later resulting in first cases of the viral pneumonia caused by nCoV-2019 emerging in Wuhan regions late November 2019-early December 2019.

After submission to The Lancet Professor Reginald M Gorczynski independently checked the data and analysis and agreed to be a co-signatory to the letter (5 Feb 2020). This version with his name is at the viXra.org archive site of Edward jJSteele
http://viXra.org/abs/2002.0039?ref=11073541

In this experimental study, cells of the radiation-resistant bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans were exposed to several different sources of radiation chosen to replicate the charged particles found in the solar wind. Naked cells or cells mixed with dust grains (basalt or sandstone) differing in elemental composition were exposed to electrons, protons, and ions to determine the probability of cell survival after irradiation. Doses necessary to reduce the viability of cell population to 10% (LD10) were determined under different experimental conditions. The results of this study indicate that low-energy particle radiation (2–4keV), typically present in the slow component of the solar wind, had no effect on dehydrated cells, even if exposed at fluences only reached in more than 1000 years at Sun-Earth distance (1 AU). Higher-energy ions (200 keV) found in solar flares would inac- tivate 90% of exposed cells after several events in less than 1 year at 1 AU. When mixed with dust grains, LD10 increases about 10-fold. These results show that, compared to the highly deleterious effects of UV radiation, solar wind charged particles are relatively benign, and organisms protected under grains from UV radiation would also be protected from the charged particles considered in this study.

The radiation-resistant bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans was exposed to a simulated interplanetary UV radiation at the Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS). Bacterial samples were irradiated on different substrates to investigate the influence of surface relief on cell survival. The effects of cell multi-layers were also investigated. The ratio of viable microorganisms remained virtually the same (average 2%) for integrated doses from 1.2 to 12 kJ m−2, corresponding to 16 h of irradiation at most. The asymptotic profiles of the curves, clearly connected to a shielding effect provided by multi-layering cells on a cavitary substrate (carbon tape), means that the inactivation rate may not change significantly along extended periods of exposure to radiation. Such high survival rates reinforce the possibility of an interplanetary transfer of viable microbes.

When analysed in patients at epicentres of outbreaks over the first three months of the 2020 pandemic, the virus responsible for COVID-19 cannot be classed as a rapidly mutating virus. It employs a haplotype-switching strategy most likely driven by APOBEC and ADAR cytosine and adenosine deamination events (C>U, A>I) at key selected sites in the ~ 30,000 nt positive sense single-stranded RNA genome (Steele and Lindley 2020). Quite early on (China, through Jan 2020) the main haplotype was L with a minor proportion of the S haplotype. By the time of the explosive outbreaks in New York City (mid-to late-March 2020) the haplotype variants expanded to at least 13. The COVID-19 genomes analysed at the main sites of exponential increases in cases and deaths over a 2 week time period (explosive epicentres) such as Wuhan and New York City showed limited mutation per se of the main haplotypes engaged in disease. When mutation was detected it was usually conservative in terms of significant alterations to protein structure. The coronavirus haplotypes whether in Wuhan, West Coast USA, Spain or New York differ by no more than 2-9 coordinated nucleotide changes and all genomes are thus ≥99.98% identical to each other. Further, we show that the most similar SARS-like CoV animal virus sequences (bats, pangolins) could not have caused the assumed zoonotic event setting off this explosive pandemic in Wuhan and regions: zoonotic causation via a Chinese wild bat SL-CoV reservoir jumping to humans by an intermediate amplifier (e.g. pangolins) is clearly not possible on the basis of the available data. We also discuss the evidence for airborne transmission of COVID-19 as the main infection route and highlight outbreaks on certain ships at sea consistent with their hypothesised cosmic origins. We conclude that the virus originated as a pure genetic strain in a life-bearing carbonaceous meteorite which was first deposited in the tropospheric jet stream over Wuhan. Over the next month or so this viral-laden dust cloud not only descended through the troposphere to target Wuhan and its environs, but was also transported in a Westerly direction through the mid-latitude northern jet stream causing explosive in-fall events sequentially over Iran, Italy, Spain and then New York City in the early months of the pandemic to the end of March 2020.

The recent emergence of a form of the Zika virus leading to microencephaly in newborn infants would continue to pose a major Global threat until its ultimate origins are properly understood. We argue that adhering to the obsolete paradigm of closed-box Darwinian evolution is a major obstacle to progress. If the Zika virus escalates unchecked its soma-to-germ line transfer might effectively lead to the emergence of a new human species with a diminished level of cognition.