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Some Scientists Think SARS May Have Come from Outer Space
LONDON (Reuters) ^
| May 22, 2003
| Patricia Reaney
Posted on 05/22/2003 5:47:54 PM PDT by TaxRelief
LONDON (Reuters) - Could SARS have come from outer space? Some scientists think so.
Instead of jumping from an unknown animal host in southern China, a few researchers in Britain believe the virus that has baffled medical experts descended from the stratosphere.
"I think it is a possibility that SARS came from space. It is a very strong possibility," Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe told Reuters.
The director of the Cardiff Center for Astrobiology in Wales and a proponent of the theory that life on Earth originated from space, admits the theory defies conventional wisdom.
But in a letter published in The Lancet medical journal on Friday he and his colleagues argue there are too many puzzling aspects about the respiratory illness that has killed nearly 700 people and infected more than 3,800 to dismiss the idea.
Other virologists believe it simply isn't possible because the virus is too fragile to survive in outer space.
"I think it is completely nuts," said Dr Anne Bridgen, a molecular virologist at the University of Ulster.
"It has a lipid (fatty) coat on the outside and it would tend to dry out in an atmosphere such as space," she told Reuters.
Professor Ian Jones, an expert in virology at the University of Reading in southern England, described the idea as bizarre.
"SARS is a new virus but it is only a new relative of a family of viruses that we understand quite well," he said, referring to the coronavirus family which includes a virus linked to the common cold.
"The difference is that it is a causing a severity of disease that we haven't seen before in the human population."
Wickramasinghe stressed that SARS suddenly appeared in China late last year and is a new coronavirus with a different genetic sequence from similar viruses in animals. Its origin has also not been traced. He believes these factors could suggest it evolved differently and may have come from a far-off place.
"There doesn't seem to have been a human origin for this. It seems to have come from somewhere else," said Dr Milton Wainwright, a molecular biologist at the University of Sheffield in England and a co-author of the letter.
"There is a lot of debate about where it could have come from and we are providing an answer," he added.
Wickramasinghe said there is no known virus that has fallen from outer space. "There is no known virus that has been picked up from high in the stratosphere," he said. "Not to date."
Yet Wickramasinghe and Wainwright believe the original outbreak in China is also significant because if the virus did fall to Earth it would most likely land east of the Himalayas, the weakest point in the stratosphere and easiest to break through.
In studies of air samples taken from 25 miles above the Earth, large numbers of micro-organisms were found, Wickramasinghe said, so it is possible SARS came from space.
"The fact that many cases in China cannot be traced to infected people means that something is dreadfully amiss in the idea of conventional wisdom," he said.
TOPICS: Breaking News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: astronomy; china; cryptobiology; extremophiles; fakescience; godsgravesglyphs; humor; itcamefromouterspace; panspermia; sars; science; tinfoilhat; wickramasinghe; xplanets
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To: TaxRelief
I think these scientist come from outer space.
141
posted on
05/23/2003 1:19:09 AM PDT
by
ido_now
To: aristeides
142
posted on
05/23/2003 2:55:35 AM PDT
by
putupon
(nothing more to read here, move along)
To: TaxRelief
A chinese military experiment gone awry is more likely.
143
posted on
05/23/2003 3:28:06 AM PDT
by
Diogenesis
(If you mess with one of us, you mess with all of us.)
To: muawiyah
Why would the virus be exposed to the "hostile environment of space" if it arrived in a small chunk of rock? This happens every day ~ the arrival of the rocks, if not the viruses. Yes, but look at all the effort it takes to recover the microbes, and people still dispute they are actually what they seem. Further, they are not alive. Such a rock is pretty effectively sterilized by re-entry heat.
No, I genuinely think this person struggled and struggled, slowly reading _The Andromeda Strain_, moving his lips as he read, and had an epiphany of some sort, in a cannabis bar.
And all the while I had to think of promising and worthwhile programs I have seen die because of lack of funding...yet someone pays this person's salary to come up with things like this?
144
posted on
05/23/2003 4:39:14 AM PDT
by
Gorzaloon
(Contents may have settled during shipping, but this tagline contains the stated product weight.)
To: liberalnot
then why has china always been a generator of the flu? Because lots of people crowded together emulate a Petri dish and give the flu more opportunities to mutate.
People in Antarctica say they only have two colds a year-Whenever new people are brought to the station.
145
posted on
05/23/2003 4:44:58 AM PDT
by
Gorzaloon
(Contents may have settled during shipping, but this tagline contains the stated product weight.)
To: Judith Anne; Mother Abigail; CathyRyan; per loin; Dog Gone; Petronski; InShanghai; Ma Li; ...
To: aristeides
I dont believe that a nice little kitty kat did Sars.
My mother in law used to have a coat that looked like leopard,but she said it was this cat .This was from the forties.So, I guess the civet went from coats to dinner.
To: TaxRelief
SARS=PLAN-9
148
posted on
05/23/2003 8:06:00 AM PDT
by
Puppage
(You may disagree with what I have to say, but I will defend to your death my right to say it)
To: ladyinred
Nope.
Not yet.
149
posted on
05/23/2003 8:25:37 AM PDT
by
Darksheare
(Nox aeternus en pax.)
To: TaxRelief
Toxoplasmosis (In people).
A cat parasite that comes from rodents.
It infects a rat or mouse and rewires it's brain so that it's natural fear of cats is obliterated.
Said rodent then picks a fight with a cat.
The cat is the toxoplasmosis bacterium(?) breeder, the rat is the carrier.
The little bug multiplies in Kitty kitty, and is expelled via fecal matter, which is nibbled by ratty. Which starts the process again.
Interestingly, the bug will multiply only in cats.
In people, it causes all sorts of problems -pregnant women especially.
150
posted on
05/23/2003 8:36:25 AM PDT
by
Darksheare
(Nox aeternus en pax.)
To: Darksheare
I'm jumping into this thread without reading everything, but I just heard on the radio news a few minutes ago that SARS has been traced to an oddball restraunt dish using a cat or catlike creature as the meat item.
151
posted on
05/23/2003 8:41:07 AM PDT
by
js1138
To: myprecious
No, their tech support really stinks.
Toll free? Ha!
They're only in it for the conquest!
Seriously though, it was a fictional story written on a whim.
Sortof a 'what if we are intellectual property?' deal.
152
posted on
05/23/2003 8:45:54 AM PDT
by
Darksheare
(Nox aeternus en pax.)
To: ffusco
Don't go in the basement!
Reminds me of a story that started out with those words, and was about ants.
Truly an odd novel.
Wish I could remember the title.
153
posted on
05/23/2003 8:47:16 AM PDT
by
Darksheare
(Nox aeternus en pax.)
To: Logical Extinction
That wouldn't happen to be from the novel of The Matrix, would it?
And if so, where would I find it?
I've heard rumor that it's actually a trilogy of books that are kinda hard to find...
154
posted on
05/23/2003 8:49:04 AM PDT
by
Darksheare
(Nox aeternus en pax.)
To: Rushmore Rocks
oops.
Sorry about lowering your goosebump threshold.
As a side note, I sometimes write other kinds of fiction.
Fantasy style stories, or just plain macabre.
Like the one about a guy whose whole life is stalked by death, and death appears to him as a pale-ish lady.
Still polishing that one up a bit.
155
posted on
05/23/2003 8:50:50 AM PDT
by
Darksheare
(Nox aeternus en pax.)
To: TaxRelief
It's quite possible that a virus could survive long endurance 'runs' in space.
There an 'extremophile' bacteria here on Earth that can survive hundreds of thousands of rads of radiation.
Many more times than it would take to kill one of us in seconds.
It's called Radiodurans.
So if there's a deep rock living bug that thrives in radwaste conditions, it would follow that there are things that would survive other just as welcoming conditions.
Nothing would surprise me anymore.
156
posted on
05/23/2003 8:53:13 AM PDT
by
Darksheare
(Nox aeternus en pax.)
To: TaxRelief
If you can find them, David Gerrold's War Against the Chtorr" series (4 books; there's supposed to be a fifth, but when it'll be released, no one knows) is an incredible story (albeit politically correct) about an entire ecosystem that seeded itself on Earth from space. A decimated Earth is left to fight against this entire set of lifeforms (not just one, but tons of different types of plant and animal life) that is taking over the planet on an increasing basis. The most recognizable lifeform tied to this series is a giant "worm" about the size of a Greyhound bus, with the front end full of teeth. These carniverous monsters are always hungry, and have an unearthly scream that would peel paint off of a wall. Matter of fact, just about ALL of the alien flora and fauna in this story are carniverous - 'human' appears to translate as 'lunch' to these things...
157
posted on
05/23/2003 8:54:34 AM PDT
by
mhking
To: js1138
but I just heard on the radio news a few minutes ago that SARS has been traced to an oddball restraunt dish using a catI hate cats
158
posted on
05/23/2003 8:54:34 AM PDT
by
putupon
(nothing more to read here, move along)
To: RightOnTheLeftCoast
Hmmm.
I'm going to have to do a rewrite of the story to catch up with the times now.
Seems I'll have to lengthen it a little.
Still, it won't have a happy ending.
159
posted on
05/23/2003 8:54:39 AM PDT
by
Darksheare
(Nox aeternus en pax.)
To: Calvin Locke
In Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Arthur Dent says something that is brought through a random hole in space time to the Vlu'urg battle council... and most of a small galaxy is destroyed.
160
posted on
05/23/2003 8:56:05 AM PDT
by
Darksheare
(Nox aeternus en pax.)
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