Let us resort to a simple example. If for the final preparation of the
popular gobelin “The Secret Dinner” a total of 1300 squares had to be
stitched by 520 000 stitches with threads of precisely defined colours for
which about a year is necessary, it is quite logical to assume that this
cannot be done in a day or two. This example, no matter how
unsuccessful it might be, a priori can testify to how important the time
factor is.
Up till now experimental reproduction of an organized living matter or
anything resembling a cell has not been accomplished. However, there is
no logic that such a possibility should be exluded in the future.
The “Panspermia” Hypothesis
Section 1.5. The alternative to the thesis of the earth origin of life is the
assumption that it was transferred to the Earth from other
celestial bodies by meteorites or cosmic dust. This view is reflected in the
hypothesis of the so-called panspermia (Greek: pan — all and spermia —
seed). Its historical development can be divided into two stages.
In 1865 the German physicist H. Richter (1865, 1870) has created
the hypothesis of the existence of “living germs” in space that could be
carried via meteorites thus reaching other celestial bodies finally finding
favourable conditions for their development. This idea was supported and
elaborated further on by a number of noted scientists such as J. von
Liebig, H. Helmholtz, W. Thomson, Ph. van Tieghem, etc. Their
presumption is that the meteorites passing through the earth atmosphere
are only heated on their surface and remain cool inside where germs of
organisms originating from other planets can be preserved and
transported to the Earth. Since the efforts to detect such viable germs (or
even their dead remains) proved to be unsuccessful this hypothesis has
gradually been ignored.
Its revival is associated with the Swedish physicochemist S. Arrhenius
(1908) who has launched the idea that spores from other planets can be
spread with space dust particles under the pressure of light rays and finding
themselves in favourable conditions on other planets they could give rise to
further development.
In his book “Svante Arrhenius” Solovyov (1990) has made an attempt
to present the thoughts and speculations of Arrhenius that have inspired
the “revival” of the panspermia hypothesis. “At first — says the author —
when based on data from chemical analysis of meteorites and after that by
spectral analyses it was proven that only on the Earth a planet of the Solar
system which is analogous to the others in its chemical and physical
composition there is life, the question of ubiquity of the organic world has
inevitably arisen in his mind. So it is not possible for only one planet alone
to have engendered organic and after that self-conscious life, and all the