Archive of Key Historical Publications

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F. Hoyle & N.C. Wickramasinghe, Primitive grain clumps and organic compounds in carbonaceous chondrites, Nature 264.4 (November 1976), 45-46 (pdf file)

F. Hoyle & N.C. Wickramasinghe, Polysaccharides and infrared spectra of galactic sources, Nature 268.18 (August 1977), 610-612 (pdf file)

M.K. Wallis & N.C. Wickramasinghe, Halley’s comet – Its size and decay rate, Mon. Not. RAS 216 (1985), 453-458 (pdf file)

F. Hoyle & N.C. Wickramasinghe, The case for life as a cosmic phenomenon, Nature 322.7 (August 1986), 509-11 (pdf file)

R. Hoover, F. Hoyle, M.K. Wallis & N.C. Wickramasinghe, Diatoms in comets, paper given at Asteroids, Comets, Meteors II, Astron Obs. Uppsala Univ (1986) (pdf file)

M.K. Wallis, R. Rabilizirov and N.C. Wickramasinghe, Evaporating grains in P/Halley’s coma, Astron. Astrophys. 187 (1987), 801-806 (pdf file)

M.K. Wallis, N.C. Wickramasinghe, F. Hoyle & R. Rabilizirov, Biologic versus abiotic models of cometary grains, Mon. Not. RAS, 238 (1989), 1165-1170 (pdf file)

M.K. Wallis & N.C. Wickramasinghe, Structural evolution of cometary surfaces, Proc. Bad Honnef Workshop, ESA (Kluwer 1991) (pdf file)

M.K. Wallis, N.C. Wickramasinghe & F. Hoyle, Cometary habitats for primitive life, Adv. Space Res. 12.4 (1992), 281-285 (pdf file)

M.K. Wallis & N.C. Wickramasinghe, Comet Halley’s remote outburst, The Observatory 112 (1992), 228-231 (pdf file)

N.C. Wickramasinghe & M. K. Wallis, The cometary hypothesis of the K/T mass extinctions, Mon. Not. RAS, 270 (1994), 420-426 (pdf file)

M.K. Wallis & N.C. Wickramasinghe, Role of major terrestrial cratering events in dispersing life in the solar system, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 130 (1995), 69-73 (pdf file)

M.K. Wallis, Cosmic genes in the Cretaceous-Tertiary transition, paper given at Fred Hoyle’s Universe Conference (Cardiff University, June 2002); Astrophys. Space Sci. 285 (2003), 587-592 (pdf file)

F. Hoyle & N.C. Wickramasinghe, Astronomy or biology?, Astrophysics and Space Science 285 (2003), 539–554 (pdf file)

S. G. Coulson & N.C. Wickramasinghe, Frictional and radiation heating of micron-sized meteoroids in the Earth’s upper atmosphere, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 343 (2003), 1123–1130 (pdf file)

A.P. Sommer & N.C. Wickramasinghe, Keeping nanobacterial infections at bay during space travel, International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents 24 (2004) 548–549 (pdf file)

N.C. Wickramasinghe, The universe: a cryogenic habitat for microbial life, Cryobiology 48 (2004), 113–125 (pdf file)

N.C. Wickramasinghe, Astrobiology and panspermia, The Biochemist (Feb 2009), 40-44 (pdf file)

Historic Panspermia Lectures from the Archive

The theory of cometary panspermia was developed by Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe and the late Sir Fred Hoyle from the 1980s onwards.  The Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation invited Prof Wickramasinghe to deliver the inaugural lecture in a new series “Expanding Mind” on 3 April 1980.  In December 1982 Fred Hoyle gave the opening lecture in a conference organised by the Sri Lanka Institute of Fundamental Studies in the presence of H.E. President J.R. Jayawardene, the President of Sri Lanka.  These lectures are available to listen to or watch below:

The origins of life on Earth – Chandra Wickramasinghe (April 1980)

From virus to cosmology – Fred Hoyle  (December 1982)

We Are The Aliens (BBC documentary, 2006, including interviews with Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe)

Books for downloading

On account of the size of these files the download could take a few minutes. The copyright is owned by Professor Wickramasinghe and the family of the late Sir Fred Hoyle, and the release of this material is solely for scientific research purposes.

F. Hoyle & C. Wickramasinghe,  Space travellers: The bringers of life (University College Cardiff Press, 1981). PDF file of  9 MB:  download Space Travellers here

F. Hoyle & C. Wickramasinghe, Proofs that life is cosmic (Memoirs of the Institute of Fundamental Studies, Sri Lanka, no.1, 1982). PDF file of 21 MB: download Proofs here

F. Hoyle & C. Wickramasinghe, Living comets (University of Cardiff Press, 1985). PDF file of 26 MB: download Living comets here

F. Hoyle, C. Wickramasinghe & J. Watkins, Viruses from space and related matters (University of Cardiff Press, 1986).  PDF file of 4 MB: download Viruses from Space here