Raulin-Cerceau F, Maurel M C, Schneider J
Grande Galerie de l'Evolution, Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France.
Orig Life Evol Biosph. 1998 Oct;28(4-6):597-612. doi: 10.1023/a:1006566518046.
During the 19th and early 20th centuries, ideas related to the possible origin in space of bioorganic molecules, or seeds, or even germs and organisms (and how they reached the Earth) included the Panspermia theory. Based on the idea of the eternity of life proposed by eminent physicists - such as Arrhenius and Kelvin - 'Panspermia' is mainly divided into two branches: lithopanspermia (transport of germs inside stones traveling in space) and radiopanspermia (transport of spores by radiative pressure of stellar light). We point out some arguments to help to understand whether 'Panspermia' could exist nowadays as the same theory defined one century ago. And we wonder about the kind of evolution 'Panspermia' could have undergone during only a few decades. This possible evolution of the 'Panspermia' concept takes place in the framework of the emergence of a new field, Bioastronomy. We present how this discipline has emerged during a few decades and how it has evolved. We consider its relationship with the progression of other scientific fields, and finally we examine how it is now included in different projects of space agencies. Bioastronomy researches having become more and more robust during the last few years, we emphasize several questions about new ideas and their consequences for the current hypothesis of 'Panspermia' and of universal life.
在19世纪和20世纪初，与生物有机分子、种子、甚至细菌和生物体可能的太空起源（以及它们如何抵达地球）相关的观点包括泛种论。基于诸如阿累尼乌斯和开尔文等杰出物理学家提出的生命永恒的观点，“泛种论”主要分为两个分支：岩质泛种论（细菌在太空中飞行的石头内部传输）和辐射泛种论（孢子通过恒星光线的辐射压力传输）。我们指出一些论据，以帮助理解“泛种论”如今是否能作为一个世纪前定义的同一理论而存在。并且我们思考“泛种论”在短短几十年间可能经历了怎样的演变。“泛种论”概念的这种可能演变发生在一个新领域——生物天文学出现的背景下。我们阐述了这门学科在几十年间是如何出现以及如何演变的。我们考虑它与其他科学领域发展的关系，最后审视它如今是如何被纳入不同的太空机构项目中的。鉴于生物天文学研究在过去几年变得越来越强大，我们强调了几个关于新观点及其对当前“泛种论”和宇宙生命假说的影响的问题。
