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Chandra Wickramasinghe
Chandra Wickramasinghe at the University of Buckingham
Born	Nalin Chandra Wickramasinghe (1939-01-20) 20 January 1939 (age 85) Colombo, British Ceylon
Known for	Organic composition of cosmic dust
Scientific career
Fields	Astronomy and mathematics

Nalin Chandra Wickramasinghe (born 20 January 1939) is a Sri Lankan-born British mathematician. He is currently Director of the Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology, University of Buckingham, UK.

He was a student and collaborator of Fred Hoyle. Their joint work on the infrared spectra of interstellar grains led to developing the hypothesis of panspermia, that proposes that life on Earth was 'seeded' from space rather than arising through abiogenesis on Earth.

He has advocated that elementary living organisms like the lichen-forming alga spores present in the red rain in Kerala are of extraterrestrial origin and that pathogens as the SARS virus also arrived on Earth from deep space carried in asteroids and comets.

A new generation of NASA and ESA scientists have now openly embraced the search for extraterrestrial life, whether by panspermia or abiogenesis.. This consciousness change, supported by the media, has brought the panspermia hypothesis by Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe back into the public eye.

Education

Wickramasinghe studied at Royal College, Colombo, the University of Ceylon where he graduated in 1960 with a BSc First Class Honours degree in mathematics, and at Trinity College, Cambridge and Jesus College, Cambridge where he obtained his PhD and ScD degrees. He was previously Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge (1963-1973); Professor and Head of the Department of Applied Mathematics and Astronomy at University College Cardiff (1973-1988); Professor in the School of Mathematics, University of Wales College of Cardiff (1988-1998); and Professor and Director of the Cardiff Centre for Astrobiology (1999-2011), now a private company and charity.

Scientific career

In 1960 he commenced work in Cambridge on his PhD degree under the supervision of the late Sir Fred Hoyle, and published his first scientific paper "On Graphite Particles as Interstellar Grains” in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1962. He was awarded a PhD degree in Mathematics in 1963 and was elected a Fellow of Jesus College Cambridge in the same year. In the following year he was appointed a Staff Member of the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge. Here he continued to work on the nature of interstellar dust, publishing many papers in this field that led to a shift of emphasis in astronomy from inorganic dust models to organic grains.

My most significant astronomical contribution was to develop the theory of organic grains in comets and in the interstellar medium. This was done during the 1970s and 1980s, and it is now accepted by everyone almost without remembering its origins! I feel I also played a part in the birth of the science of astrobiology.

He published the first definitive book on Interstellar Grains in 1967. He has made many contributions to this field, publishing over 350 papers in peer-reviewed journals, over 75 in Nature (journal). In 1974 he first proposed the hypothesis that some dust in interstellar space was largely organic (contain carbon), which Wickramasinghe later proved to be correct. Hoyle and Wickramasinghe further contended that extraterrestrial life forms continue to enter the Earth's atmosphere, and may be responsible for epidemic outbreaks, new diseases, and the genetic novelty necessary for macroevolution. In a virtual presentation on April 7, 2009, physicist Stephen Hawking endorsed the hypothesis. Chandra Wickramasinghe had the longest running collaboration with Fred Hoyle and is responsible for forging a link between biology and astronomy in the late 1970s. Their publications on books and papers arguing for panspermia and a cosmic hypothesis of life are nevertheless controversial.

Wickramasinghe was appointed a consultant and advisor to the President of Sri Lanka in 1982-84, and played a key role in founding the Institute of Fundamental Studies in Sri Lanka.

Detection of living cells in the stratosphere

On the 20 January 2001 the Indian Space Research Organisation conducted a balloon flight from Hyderabad, India to collect stratospheric dust from a height of 41 km with a view to testing for the presence of living cells. The collaborators on this project included a team of UK scientists led by Wickramasinghe. In a paper presented at a SPIE conference in San Diego in 2002 the detection of evidence for viable microorganisms from 41 km was presented. However, the experiment did not present evidence as to whether the findings are incoming microbes from space rather than microbes carried up to 41 km from the surface of the Earth.

In 2005 the ISRO group carried out a second stratospheric sampling experiment from 41 km altitude and reported the isolation of three new species of bacteria including one that they named Janibacter hoylei sp.nov. in honour of Fred Hoyle. However, these facts do not prove that bacteria on Earth originated in the cosmic environment.

Samplings of the stratosphere have also been carried out by Yang et al. (2005, 2009). During the experiment strains of highly radiation-resistant Deinococcus bacterium were detected at heights up to 35 km. Nevertheless these authors have abstained from linking these discoveries to panspermia.

Extraterrestrial microbes

On May 24, 2003 The Lancet published a letter from Wickramasinghe, jointly signed by Milton Wainwright and Jayant Narlikar, in which they hypothesized that the virus that causes Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) could be extraterrestrial in origin and not originated from chickens. The Lancet subsequently published three responses to this letter, showing that the hypothesis was not evidence-based, and casting doubts on the quality of the experiments referenced by Wickramasinghe in his letter.

Wickramasinghe was also involved in coordinating analyses of the Red rain in Kerala in collaborations with Godfrey Louis.

Based on the latest results of the Kepler Mission, NASA has estimated that there are approximately 144 Billion Earth-like exoplanets around Sun-like stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. This observation alone has open the possibilities to the probable existence of extraterrestrial life. In addition, the results from the orbital mission EXPOSE, concluded that some Earth extremophile microbes may be capable to survive interplanetary travel if sheltered inside comets or rocks from the harsh outer space environment and cosmic radiation.

Participation in the creation-evolution debate

Wickramasinghe is a respected UK Buddhist and regularly gives lectures to his community on the role of Science from a Buddhist perspective. It is not generally appreciated that Buddhists do not believe in God. The Gautama Buddha, like modern sociologists and psychologists, believed that religious ideas and especially the "god idea" have their origin in fear. The Buddha says: "Gripped by fear men go to the sacred mountains, sacred groves, sacred trees and shrines". As a mathematician and astonomer, Wickramasinghe has an understanding of the various implications of infinity.

Once again the Universe gives the appearance of being biologically constructed, and on this occasion on a truly vast scale. Once again those who consider such thoughts to be too outlandish to be taken seriously will continue to do so. While we ourselves shall continue to take the view that those who believe they can match the complexities of the Universe by simple experiments in their laboratories will continue to be disappointed.

This quote has been misunderstood as support for the idea of "god-like" intervention in the seeding of life (on earth, in the galaxy or even in other galaxies). In fact what Wickramasinghe was expressing was two fold :

1. it was a message to his fellow physicists that it was time to bring the disciplines of biology into the world of astrophysics and chemistry

2. it was his message to chemists that it was only though arrogance that man thought he might be able to "create life" in a laboratory.

As a Buddhist his own personal belief is that the Age of the universe might just be sufficiently old that somewhere, just once, the highly improbable conditions for the evolution of viruses (or nanobacterial) i.e. for the evolution of an "organism of the edge of LIFE". He was simply expressing a buddhist's perspective to Life and its mysterious first seeding. From that moment Panspermia hypothesizes a promulgation of this "seed of life".

1981 scientific creationist trial in Arkansas : Supporters of Panspermia, Hoyle and Wickramasinghe, who have a belief that the universe (perhaps multiverse) is ageless, have evolved a theory of Cosmic ancestry. This is quite separate from Panspermia. In his desire to support support this third vision, which in fact is very similar to ancient buddhism, Wickramasinghe was invited to testifying for the defense of creationism and against evolution. Wickramasinghe presented a passionate argument for his own vision which includes pieces from each of the three perspectives.

Honours and awards

• Commonwealth Scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge, 1960-1963
• Powell Prize for English Verse, Trinity College, 1961
• Decorated by the President of Sri Lanka with the titular honour of Vidya Jyothi, 1992
• Honorary DLitt, Sōka University (Japan), 1996
• Doctor of Science (honoris causa), University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka, 2004

Books

• Interstellar Grains (Chapman & Hall, London, 1967)
• Light Scattering Functions for Small Particles with Applications in Astronomy (Wiley, New York, 1973)
• Solid-State Astrophysics (ed. with D.J. Morgan) (D. Reidel, Boston, 1975)
• Interstellar Matter (with F.D. Khan & P.G. Mezger) (Swiss Society of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 1974)
• The Cosmic Laboratory (University College of Cardiff, 1975)
• Lifecloud: The Origin of Life in the Universe (with Fred Hoyle) (J.M. Dent, London, 1978)
• Diseases from Space (with Fred Hoyle) (J.M. Dent, London, 1979)
• Origin of Life (with Fred Hoyle) (University College Cardiff Press, 1979)
• Space Travellers: The Bringers of Life (with Fred Hoyle) (University College Cardiff Press, 1981)
• Evolution from Space (with Fred Hoyle) (J.M. Dent, London, 1981) ISBN 978-0-460-04535-3
• Is Life an Astronomical Phenomenon? (University College Cardiff Press, 1982) ISBN 9780906449493
• Why Neo-Darwinism Does Not Work (with Fred Hoyle) (University College Cardiff Press, 1982) ISBN 9780906449509
• Proofs that Life is Cosmic (with Fred Hoyle) (Institute of Fundamental Studies, Sri Lanka, Memoirs no.1, 1982)
• From Grains to Bacteria (with Fred Hoyle) (University College Cardiff Press, 1984) ISBN 9780906449646
• Fundamental Studies and the Future of Science (ed.) (University College Cardiff Press, 1984) ISBN 9780906449578
• Living Comets (with Fred Hoyle) (University College Cardiff Press, 1985) ISBN 9780906449790
• Archaeopteryx, the Primordial Bird (with Fred Hoyle) (Christopher Davies, Swansea, 1986) ISBN 9780715406656
• The Theory of Cosmic Grains (with Fred Hoyle) (Kluwer, Dordrecht, 1991) ISBN 9780792311898
• Life on Mars? The Case for a Cosmic Heritage (with Fred Hoyle) (Clinical Press, Bristol, 1997) ISBN 9781854570413
• Astronomical Origins of Life: Steps towards Panspermia (with Fred Hoyle) (Kluwer, Dordrecht, 2000) ISBN 9780792360810
• Cosmic Dragons: Life and Death on Our Planet (Souvenir Press, London, 2001) ISBN 9780285636064
• Fred Hoyle’s Universe (ed. with G. Burbidge and J. Narlikar) (Kluwer, Dordrecht, 2003) ISBN 9781402014154
• A Journey with Fred Hoyle (World Scientific, Singapore, 2005) ISBN 9789812565792
• Comets and the Origin of Life (with J. Wickramasinghe and W. Napier) (World Scientific, Hackensack NJ, 2010) ISBN 9789812814005

Articles

• Hoyle, F. and Wickramasinghe, N.C., 1962. On graphite particles as interstellar grains, Mon.Not.Roy.Astr.Soc. 124, 417-433
• Hoyle, F. and Wickramasinghe, N.C., 1969. Interstellar Grains, Nature 223, 450-462 doi:10.1038/223459a0
• Wickramasinghe, N.C., 1974. Formaldehyde polymers in interstellar space, Nature 252, 462-463
• Wickramasinghe, N.C., Hoyle, F., Brooks, J. and Shaw, G., 1977. Prebiotic polymers and infrared spectra of galactic sources, Nature 269, 674-676 doi:10.1038/269674a0
• Hoyle, F. and Wickramasinghe, N.C., 1977. Identification of the λ2,200A interstellar absorption feature, Nature 270, 323-324
• Hoyle, F. and Wickramasinghe, N.C., 1977. Primitive grain clumps and organic compounds in carbonaceous chondrites, Nature, 264, 45-46
• Hoyle, F. and Wickramasinghe, N.C., 1977. Polysaccharides and infrared spectra of galactic sources, Nature 268, 610-612
• Hoyle, F. and Wickramasinghe, N.C., 1979. On the nature of interstellar grains, Astrophysics and Space Science 66, 77-90 doi:10.1007/BF00648361
• Hoyle, F. and Wickramasinghe, N.C., 1979. Biochemical chromophores and the interstellar extinction at ultraviolet wavelengths, Astrophysics and Space Science 65, 241-244 doi:10.1007/BF00643503
• Hoyle, F., Wickramasinghe, N.C., S. Al-Mufti et al., 1982. Infrared spectroscopy over the 2.9-3.9μm waveband in biochemistry and astronomy, Astrophysics and Space Science 83, 405-409 doi:10.1023/A:1002417307802
• Hoyle, F., Wickramasinghe, N.C., S. Al-Mufti, 1982. Organo-siliceous biomolecules and the infrared spectrum of the Trapezium nebula, Astrophysics and Space Science 86, 63-69 doi:10.1007/BF00651830
• Hoyle, F. and Wickramasinghe, N.C., 1983. Bacterial life in space, Nature 306, 420 doi:10.1038/306420a0
• Hoyle, F. and Wickramasinghe, N.C., 1986. The case for life as a cosmic phenomenon, Nature 322, 509-511
• Hoyle, F. and Wickramasinghe, N.C., 1990. Influenza – evidence against contagion, Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 83. 258-261
• Napier, W.M., Wickramasinghe, J.T, Wickramasinghe, N.C., 2007. The origin of life in comets, International Journal of Astrobiology 6(4), 321-323 doi:10.1017/S1473550407003941
• Rauf, K. and Wickramasinghe, C., 2010. Evidence for biodegradation products in the interstellar medium, International Journal of Astrobiology 9(1), 29-34 doi:10.1017/S1473550409990334
• Wickramasinghe, N. C., 2010. The astrobiological case for our cosmic ancestry, International Journal of Astrobiology 9(2), 119–129 doi:10.1017/S1473550409990413
• Wickramasinghe, N.C., Wallis, J., Wallis, D.H., Schild, R.E. and Gibson, C.H., 2012. Life-bearing planets in the solar vicinity, Astrophysics and Space Science 341.2, 295-9 DOI: 10.1007/s10509-012-1092-8
• Chandra Wickramasinghe, A Journey with Fred Hoyle: The Search for Cosmic Life, World Scientific Publishing, 2005, ISBN 981-238-912-1
• Janaki Wickramasinghe, Chandra Wickramasinghe and William Napier, Comets and the Origin of Life, World Scientific Publishing, 2009, ISBN 981-256-635-X
• Chandra Wickramasinghe and Daisaku Ikeda, Space and Eternal Life, Journeyman Press, 1998, ISBN 1-85172-060-X

References

1. "Historical background — University of Buckingham". Buckingham.ac.uk. Retrieved 2013-01-18.
2. Public Invited to Free Lecture at NASA Goddard: Search for Extraterrestrial Life
3. "Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe — University of Buckingham". Buckingham.ac.uk. Retrieved 2013-01-18.
4. Cite error: The named reference closed was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
5. ^ "This Week's Citation Classic" (PDF). ISI Current Contents. 1986-06-02. Retrieved 2013-01-18.
6. ^ "Archive of key historical publications — University of Buckingham". Buckingham.ac.uk. 1980-04-03. Retrieved 2013-01-18.
7. ^ "Interstellar grains (Book, 1967)". . Retrieved 2013-01-18.
8. Nature, vol: 252, 462, 1974; and Nature,Vol 268, 610, 1977.
9. Wickramasinghe, D. T. & Allen, D. A. The 3.4-µm interstellar absorption feature. Nature 287, 518−519 (1980). Allen, D. A. & Wickramasinghe, D. T. Diffuse interstellar absorption bands between 2.9 and 4.0 µm. Nature 294, 239−240 (1981). Wickramasinghe, D. T. & Allen, D. A. Three components of 3–4 μm absorption bands. Astrophys. Space Sci. 97, 369−378 (1983).
10. Fred Hoyle, Chandra Wickramasinghe and John Watson (1986). Viruses from Space and Related Matters. University College Cardiff Press.
11. "Ruminations on other worlds". StatePress.com. April 7, 2009. Retrieved 2012-10-10. {{cite news}}: |first= missing |last= (help)
12. Shivaji, S., Chaturvedi, P., Begum, Z. et al, 2009. Janibacter hoylei sp.nov., Bacillus isronensis sp.nov. and Bacillus aryabhattai sp.nov. isolated from cryotubes used for collecting air from the upper atmosphere, Int.J.Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology, 59, 2977-2986 doi:10.1099/ijs.0.002527-0
13. Yang, Y., Yokobori, S., Kawaguchi, J., et al, 2005. Investigation of cultivable microorganisms in the stratosphere collected by using a balloon in 2005, JAXA Research Development Report, JAXA-RR-08-001, 35-42
14. Yang, Y.; Yokobori, S.; Yamagishi, A. (2009). "Assessing panspermia hypothesis by microorganisms collected in the high altitude atmosphere" (PDF). Biol. Sci. Space. 23 (3): 151–163.
15. Wickramasinghe, C (2003 May 24). "SARS--a clue to its origins?". Lancet. 361 (9371): 1832. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(03)13440-X. PMID 12781581. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
16. Willerslev, E (2003 Aug 2). "Panspermia--true or false?". Lancet. 362 (9381): 406, author reply 407–8. PMID 12907025. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
17. Bhargava, PM (2003 Aug 2). "Panspermia--true or false?". Lancet. 362 (9381): 407, author reply 407–8. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(03)14041-X. PMID 12907028. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
18. Ponce de Leon, S (2003 Aug 2). "Panspermia--true or false?". Lancet. 362 (9381): 406–7, author reply 407-8. PMID 12907026. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
19. "EXPOSE, an Astrobiological Exposure Facility on the International Space Station - from Proposal to Flight" (PDF). Orig Life Evol Biosph. 9 July 2009. doi:10.1007/s11084-009-9173-6. Retrieved 2013-07-08. {{cite journal}}: |first= missing |last= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
20. "Survival of Rock-Colonizing Organisms After 1.5 Years in Outer Space". Astrobiology. 12 (5): 508–516. May 2012. doi:10.1089/ast.2011.0736. Retrieved 2013-07-09. {{cite journal}}: |first= missing |last= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
21. "Light scattering functions for small particles, with applications in astronomy (Book, 1973)". . Retrieved 2013-01-18.
22. "Interstellar matter (Book, 1972)". . Retrieved 2013-01-18.
23. "The cosmic laboratory (Book, 1975)". . 1975-05-20. Retrieved 2013-01-18.
24. "Diseases from space (Book, 1980)". . Retrieved 2013-01-18.
25. "The origin of life (Book, 1980)". . Retrieved 2013-01-18.
26. "Proofs that life is Cosmic (Book, 1982)". . Retrieved 2013-01-18.
27. ^ Wickramasinghe, N. C. "Formaldehyde polymers in interstellar Space" (PDF). Cosmology Science Publishers. Retrieved 2013-01-18. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
28. F., Hoyle; N. C., Wickramasinghe (1976-11-04). "Primitive grain clumps and organic compounds in carbonaceous chondrites" (PDF). Nature. 264. Nature Publishing Group. Retrieved 2013-01-18.
29. F., Hoyle; N. C., Wickramasinghe (1977-08-18). "Polysaccharides and infrared spectra of galactic sources" (PDF). Nature. 268. Nature Publishing Group. Retrieved 2013-01-18.
30. F., Hoyle; N. C., Wickramasinghe (1986-08-07). "The case for life as a cosmic phenomenon" (PDF). Nature. 322. Nature Publishing Group. Retrieved 2013-01-18.
31. Hoyle, F.; Wickramasinghe, N. C. (1990). "Influenza-evidence against contagion: discussion paper". Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. 83 (4). Royal Society of Medicine: 258–261. PMC 1292615. PMID 2342043. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

External links

• Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology (BCAB)
• Review of Space and Eternal Life
• A panspermic view of life Interview with N. Chandra Wickramasinghe
• Star treatment for astronomer
• Professor Wickramasinghe Bio
• 'Life from space' expert loses funding
• Professor Wickramasinghe's profile at the University of Buckingham
• Biography in Debrett's People of Today

• Scintilla Issue 1(1997) ‘Speech’; ‘Monsoon’; ‘The Chase’; ‘Evening’
• Interviews

Template:Persondata

• 1939 births
• Living people
• British astronomers
• Panspermia
• People of British Ceylon
• Academics of the University of Cambridge
• Academics of Cardiff University
• Fellows of Jesus College, Cambridge
• Alumni of the Royal College, Colombo
• Alumni of the University of Ceylon
• Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge
• People from Colombo
• Welsh people of Sri Lankan descent
• Sinhalese people