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| Anaxagoras Fresco (Public Domain) |
If the theory of panspermia weren’t complex enough, there are also the subheadings of lithopanspermia (“interstellar panspermia”), ballistic panspermia (“interplanetary panspermia”) and directed panspermia (intentional panspermia) to contend with.
From the Greek, the term "panspermia" can be literally translated as “seeds everywhere.” Seeds of what? Seeds
of life.
According to Panspermia Theory, “’seeds’ of life exist all over the Universe and can be propagated through space from one
location to another.” The rudiments of this theory were first proposed by the Greek philosopher Anaxagoras, circa 500 BC.
Anaxagoras stated: All things have existed from the beginning. But originally they existed in
infinitesimally small fragments of themselves… There
were the seeds (spermata)… but these
parts, of like nature with their
wholes, had to be eliminated from the
complex mass before they could
receive a definite name and character.
Millenia later, Francis Crick (of DNA fame) proposed a “theory of directed panspermia.” Because
he “found it impossible that the complexity of DNA could have evolved naturally,” Crick believed that “small grains of DNA” could have intentionally been “loaded on a brace of rockets and fired randomly in all directions.”
Could some of this DNA have landed on Earth? Crick
seemed to think so.
Resources
http://www.panspermia-theory.com/
Copyright February 22, 2015 by Linda Van Slyke All Rights Reserved
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