Panspermia, Octopuses, and Comets 1/6

The origin of life on Earth is unknown. In the scientific field, two theories try to explain the mystery: Abiogenesis, preferred by most scientists, and panspermia, defended by a small but fierce circle of scholars. This article aims to explain what panspermia is and what are the reasons given by its supporters

The protagonists of this story

In 1979, the Italian publishing house Mondadori issued “La Nuvola della Vita” by Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe, a book that I avidly read because it promised answers to the great cosmological questions that, then as now, were at the center of my interests. It was the Italian translation of a book published the year before by the British publishing house Dent, titled “Life Cloud. The origin of life in the Universe.” That book was the official manifesto of panspermia, the theory on the cosmic origin of life supported by the two authors.

F. Hoyle, C. Wickramasinghe, “La nuvola della vita. L’origine della vita nell’Universo“, Mondadori 1979