More than 1100 papers will be presented on topics pertaining to astrobiology, asteroids, Europa and Jupiter, extraterrestrial life, Ganymede and Io, Martian glaciers, Martian volcanoes, Martian water, Mercury, the Tagish Lake Meteorite and Venus. 32nd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference , 12-16 March 2001. One way for microorganisms to escape a planet is to be blasted off by a high-speed impact. Now a team from Germany has investigated whether microorganisms could survive a pressure shock comparable to that which some martian meteorites appear to have experienced. In experiments using explosives, spores of Bacillus subtilis HA 101 were subjected to a peak shock pressure of 32 GPa between two quartz plates.
Influenza epidemics are four times more likely during solar maxima.
A Canadian team of a solar physicist, a phsician and an epidemiologist compared flu and solar records dating back to 1729 and found a statistically significant connection. Although the results were compelling, the team offered no explanation for the effect. The report adds plausibility to the earlier suggestion by Hoyle and Wickramasinghe that increased solar radiation might enhance the penetration of space-borne germs into Earth's atmosphere.