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An invader from space?

Cardiff May 26. SARS may turn out to be an alien invader from outer space, some scientists believe.

Chandra Wickramasinghe, from the University of Cardiff, says there is already evidence that the virus which causes Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) is extraterrestrial.

He warned it could still be circulating high in the atmosphere, and might fall anywhere on Earth without warning. The microbiologist, Milton Wainwright, of Sheffield University agrees.

Mr. Wainwright says the evidence that SARS came from space is the virus's unique character, the fact it was first detected in China, the low rates of infection except through close contact, and the failure to restrict the epidemic. The idea is not as fanciful as it sounds. A small group of respected astrobiologists, led by Prof. Wickramasinghe, believe the idea of bugs and viruses arriving on Earth from space is plausible. They point to ancient and modern major epidemics which appear suddenly and spread in a way that cannot easily be explained.

Examples include the plague of Athens and the devastating influenza pandemic of 1917-19 that killed more people than the First World War. Samples of air taken from 26 miles up in the stratosphere have yielded many microbes, but whether or not they are extraterrestrial is open to question.

Bacterial material

Prof. Wickramasinghe's team estimates that a tonne of bacterial material falls to Earth from space daily — equivalent to 20,000 bacteria per square metre of the Earth's surface. The theory is that extraterrestrial organisms are carried around the solar system by comets or meteorites. — DPA

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