Here's something to really bake your noodle: A bunch of scientists are now theorizing that SARS might have arrived on Earth from another planet.
In a letter to the British medical journal The Lancet, Chandra Wickramasinghe, from Cardiff University in Wales, and other scientists, propose that SARS may have originated in outer space then fallen down to Earth and landed in China, where the outbreak began.
It sounds like a headline from a supermarket tabloid, but the idea may not be as outlandish as it first appears. One hundred tons (90 metric tons) of space debris fall on Earth every day; some scientists believe as much as one ton (0.9 metric ton) of bacteria from space is part of that daily deposit.
Particles carrying the SARS virus could have come from a comet, the researchers say, and released into the debris trail of the comet's tail. The Earth's passage through the stream would have led to the entry of the culprit particles.
"We're not saying this is definitely what happened," said Wickramasinghe, who is also the director of the Cardiff Centre for Astrobiology, a research effort that seeks evidence of extraterrestrial life. "But the theory should not be ruled out."
Okay, I guess you can take or leave this question of whether SARS could have come from little green men. But let's back up a bit: One ton of bacteria falls from space every day? One ton? Of space bacteria? EVERY DAY?? Why haven't we been, you know, like, told about this kind of thing?
Posted by Clive Thompson at June 09, 2003 08:16 PM
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Think what you will of Michael Crighton, but he turned this freaky factoid into The Andromeda Strain, like, 30 years ago. This proves the Kilgor Trout Theorem: hacks are frequently better at predicting the future than yer hoity toity "ahtists."
Posted by: Erik Weissengruber at June 10, 2003 10:03 AM
Tres true. ‹massive generalization›Ahtists are worried about representing the reality they see around them -- shocking us into new awarenesses by making today's reality strange. Hackers and sci-fi geeks are more interested in completely revising and revisioning reality.‹/massive generalization›
That's why sci-fi is really the only utopian literature left. When's the last time someone tried to present a radically new vision of society in a genre that wasn'tsci-fi? Hell, when's the last time someone tried to do that even in political non-fiction?
Posted by: Clive at June 10, 2003 10:34 AM
"When's the last time someone tried to present a radically new vision of society in a genre that wasn't sci-fi?"
Hmm. That's sort of tautological; anything that 'makes today's reality strange' gets labelled literature, but anything that presents a 'radically new vision' is automatically considered to be sci-fi. Here are three novels which present increasingly radical future societies, but all of which have current technology: Findley's 'Headhunter' (literature), Atwood's 'The Handmaid's Tale'(literature/sci-fi), and Tepper's 'The Gate to Women's Country' (sci-fi). Add in any awareness that new technologies can drive social change and some imagination as to what they'll be and voila, you get shelved with all the Star Wars novels.
Posted by: Debbie Chachra at June 10, 2003 2:12 PM
Makes you wonder what other diseases originated from outer space ...AIDS , cancer , that annoying incurable rash around my groin ...DAMM those little green men!!
Posted by: Indian Stallion at June 10, 2003 11:49 PM
Debbie -- yeah, good point about my rather tautological definition of sci-fi! I guess I was thinking more about non-fiction, really. You can be very politically speculative and visionary about alternative society structures in non-fiction if you want, and it's not called sci-fi; it's just alternative political thought. But from what I've been reading, major Western political thinkers have long ago given up on being visionary in their writing.
Indian Stallion: Man, if you actually have a groin rash from outer space, that would be kind of cool.
Posted by: Clive at June 11, 2003 12:20 AM
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Think what you will of Michael Crighton, but he turned this freaky factoid into The Andromeda Strain, like, 30 years ago. This proves the Kilgor Trout Theorem: hacks are frequently better at predicting the future than yer hoity toity "ahtists."
Posted by: Erik Weissengruber at June 10, 2003 10:03 AM
Tres true. ‹massive generalization›Ahtists are worried about representing the reality they see around them -- shocking us into new awarenesses by making today's reality strange. Hackers and sci-fi geeks are more interested in completely revising and revisioning reality.‹/massive generalization›
That's why sci-fi is really the only utopian literature left. When's the last time someone tried to present a radically new vision of society in a genre that wasn'tsci-fi? Hell, when's the last time someone tried to do that even in political non-fiction?
Posted by: Clive at June 10, 2003 10:34 AM
"When's the last time someone tried to present a radically new vision of society in a genre that wasn't sci-fi?"
Hmm. That's sort of tautological; anything that 'makes today's reality strange' gets labelled literature, but anything that presents a 'radically new vision' is automatically considered to be sci-fi. Here are three novels which present increasingly radical future societies, but all of which have current technology: Findley's 'Headhunter' (literature), Atwood's 'The Handmaid's Tale'(literature/sci-fi), and Tepper's 'The Gate to Women's Country' (sci-fi). Add in any awareness that new technologies can drive social change and some imagination as to what they'll be and voila, you get shelved with all the Star Wars novels.
Posted by: Debbie Chachra at June 10, 2003 2:12 PM
Makes you wonder what other diseases originated from outer space ...AIDS , cancer , that annoying incurable rash around my groin ...DAMM those little green men!!
Posted by: Indian Stallion at June 10, 2003 11:49 PM
Debbie -- yeah, good point about my rather tautological definition of sci-fi! I guess I was thinking more about non-fiction, really. You can be very politically speculative and visionary about alternative society structures in non-fiction if you want, and it's not called sci-fi; it's just alternative political thought. But from what I've been reading, major Western political thinkers have long ago given up on being visionary in their writing.
Indian Stallion: Man, if you actually have a groin rash from outer space, that would be kind of cool.
Posted by: Clive at June 11, 2003 12:20 AM
Yeah it would be a pretty cool pick up line wouldn't it ...I could just saunter up to a hot looking chick and go "Hey how about I show you my groin rash that originated from outer space?", I think a gal would be impressed by that rite.
You know what I am gonna try it next week !
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