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model seems to be vindicated by many space missions and what is being discovered elsewhere in laboratories.

About 100 billion commets exist in our own planetary system. The theory of Wickramasinghe and Hoyle states that it is to our advantage to have this "comet-born bacteria" introduced to all habitable planets. Because of the space dust and bacteria, all comets bring life and life-sustaining water in our oceans or water on other planets. What the men have discovered is that Oort Cloud consists of organic matter, an area where the most spectacular comets originate from-the furthest reaches of the solar system. Once Earth, Venus and the sun form a line-what is transferred are approximately 1 to 10 grams of bacteria-matter of not only primitive life but also evolved life. What has been recently found on Mars-methane-possibly is related to life material.

Professor Wickramasinghe's address to the Professional Sri Lankans in Britain:

"From time immemorial, our ancestors have gazed at the night sky, the Milky Way, comprised of billions of stars, and wondered how we humans fit into this grand scheme of things. When he grew up in Colombo and the city's atmosphere was less polluted, he could recall the finest view of the canopy of stars he enjoyed. Early depictions of constellations can be seen in primitive cave paintings that go back nearly 15,000 years. Well formulated ideas about the Universe, however, can be traced back to ancient Greece in the 5th century BC. Plato and Aristotle favored a world view where the Earth was at the center of the Universe. Despite a few dissenters, notably Aristarchus of Samos, the Geocentric model prevailed in Western philosophy until the 16th century AD, when Copernicus, Galileo and Newton finally demoted the Earth to the position of a planet orbiting around the Sun. Likewise, the idea that life is Earth-centered and that living organisms are created spontaneously from inorganic matter prevailed in Western philosophy from the time of Aristotle, who supposed that "fireflies emerge from a mixture of warm earth and morning dew."

This address of this knowledgable man refers also to the fact that the origin of life has been approached by many areas-religion and philosophy. Now it is being approached by science as a cosmic phenomenon that is slowly being spread throughout the entire universe, but 50 years is too short of a time to find anything out when looking for life. After all, it is still just a piece of space dust.

Learn more about this author, Nancy L. Young-Houser.
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