Is SARS from outer space?

[jadison]

LONDON, England (CNN) -- The SARS virus might have originated in outer space, according to a scientist in Britain.

In a letter to The Lancet medical journal, professor Chandra Wickramasinghe of Cardiff University suggests the virus was introduced to Earth on a comet or meteorite.

Comets are known to contain many organic chemicals as well as water.

But international scientists are still undecided about research from 1996 purporting to show ancient bacterial forms in a meteorite from Mars.

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Scary stuff indeed, what do you think?

No. Coronaviruses (the family the purported SARS virus is part of) have been around for a loooong time.

I recall an archeological DNA study that found evidence of coronaviruses in frozen samples of so-called "cave men", who were at least many thousands of years old.

SARS is just a mutation within the coronavirus family, perhaps passaged through animals like the influenza virus does.

Not likely to be a present from E.T.

IMO, anyway.

Cheers
Mick

[vass0922]

You'd think NO bacteria could survive the entrance of an asteriod into a meteor in the earths atmosphere at the temps involved... generally the meteor doesn't even survive!

[SPEEDO]

I wonder if bacteria can even survive in outer space..........

[goldenbuddha]

Actually if you put it into the right perspective, everything on earth came from outer space =)

[vass0922]

Well one thing to keep in perspective...
We know about things that live on earth, they're air/temp/moisture requirements...
We know nothing about the requirements of any space bacteria.. who knows maybe it could live off the elements in a meteor.. and could thrive and grow in the type of heat in entry into the atmosphere

Space bacteria, eh? Sounds a little hokey to me.

Star Trekteria!

It's like the blob or the andromeda strain or something.

[Theophylact]

Wickramasinghe is a loony with excellent credentials, alas. He and the late great (but also loony) astronomer Fred Hoyle had put forth a theory about influenza also being from outer space many years ago; this is just more of the same.

A story in today's Washington Post suggests a more mundane but nevertheless interesting source: uncommon mammals consumed in China as delicacies.

The tests found a virus that appeared virtually identical to the SARS virus in saliva and feces of six catlike animals, known as masked palm civets. The researchers directly isolated virus from four of the animals and found pieces of genetic material from the microbe in two others. Tests also showed genetic evidence of the virus in feces of another animal, known as a raccoon dog, and an eighth animal, a Chinese ferret badger, had antibodies to the virus in its blood. None of the animals was sick.

[thekingofpain]

I saw yesterday on the news that they believe it came from China where they frequently eat that animal thats similar to a cat as Theo noted, a---Civet---it looked like a funky cross between a mangled skunk a opossom and a cat---YUM YUM!!!

[youngqd]

It's probably the coffee they make from the cat.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/010525.html

Of course if a civet cat isn't handy you could use a monkey.

http://www.geocities.com/unasoda42/p...eaturette.html