origin of SARS

[EdipisReks]

SARS may be be from cats , but it may also be from space . if both ideas are correct, does that mean that cats are from space? i knew it all along.

 

[arcticpenguin]

The "SARS from outer space" is so far out there that a mainstream news publication should be ashamed of itself for giving it column space.

Note the same "controversial astronomer", Chandra Wickramasinghe, a long-time advocate of panspermia, proposes that mad cow disease and influenza epidemics also comes from outer space. We know enough about influenza evolution to know how ridiculous that is, and as for BSE, if the prion hypothesis (the current best accepted scientific theory) is correct, that would mean an animal with molecules like bovine beta-amyloid inhabits outer space.

Note the last paragraph. This guy launched a balloon to look for micro-organisms in the high atmosphere. Found something. Then he concluded it was more likely that bacteria came from outer space than right here on earth. For me, that does not compute.

 

[EdipisReks]

is Globe and Mail really a "mainstream news source"? i always thought, just from reading the crap that they post on the website, that they were a tabloid.

 

[Monketi Ghost]

I was just checking this story out, and found it distressing that nearly a quarter of the poll respondants feel it's more likely that SARS originated in space.

Maybe it should be renamed SAPS for these individuals?

 

[mstricky]

you need to go to www.bbc.co.uk and then search for sars
it tells all

 

[walthrup48]

Taking my cue from max's post, I found -

'Sars 'from the stars'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2931246.stm

"Professor Wickramasinghe, who is a leading panspermia enthusiast, says the Sars coronavirus is so unusual that it could not have arisen on Earth.".........

"Professor Wickramasinghe admits there is no hard evidence for his theory".......

 

[Zombified]

Are there any biologists in the house? I had been given to understand that infectious agents were generally adapted to attack their hosts in specific ways by evolution, particularly when it comes to avoiding the immune system... yet if this SARS FROM SPAAAACE theory was right, there would be no time for evolution to do its thing...

 

[arcticpenguin]

Are there any biologists in the house? I had been given to understand that infectious agents were generally adapted to attack their hosts in specific ways by evolution, particularly when it comes to avoiding the immune system... yet if this SARS FROM SPAAAACE theory was right, there would be no time for evolution to do its thing...

Yes and no. Infectious agents to evolve for their host. However, they can occasionally jump to a new kind of host. This new host is probably unprepared for the infection and may not know how to deal with it. The infectious agent will undergo rapid evolution because it is now in a new environment (host)

The SARS corona virus is related to other coronaviruses right here on earth. Up until now, we didn't know its nearest relatives, which might have cross-infected humans. That's where the civet cat proposal comes in. If they can show that the SARS virus is closely related to the version that infects civets, that pretty much wipes trumps any claim that SARS came from outer space. It is much more plausible that it evolved from the very similar virus in civets.

I guess someone could then claim that the virus which infects civets came from outer space ... That's what I don't like about the "life from outer space" hypothesis in general; it doesn't really answer any questions, it just pushes them back one step.

 

[JamesM]

You can get to the Wickramasinghe's letter itself for free at the Lancet website, although it requires you to register and in this case, doesn't add a whole lot more than what was reported in the mainstream news.

 

[arcticpenguin]

You can get to the Wickramasinghe's letter itself for free at the Lancet website, although it requires you to register and in this case, doesn't add a whole lot more than what was reported in the mainstream news.

Well, maybe somebody needs a good laugh or something.
Thanks,

 

[Attrayant]

yet if this SARS FROM SPAAAACE theory was right...

SARS NEEDS WOMEN!