panspermia

Also pan·sper·ma·tism

[pan-spur-mee-uh]

noun

Biology.

1. the theory that life exists and is distributed throughout the universe in the form of germs or spores that develop in the right environment.

Other Word Forms

• panspermic adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of panspermia¹

1835–45; < New Latin < Greek panspermía mixture of all seeds. See pan-, -sperm, -ia

Example Sentences

Inspired in part by the organic networks generated by fungi, Covey fills her pictures with repeated organic forms, whether the animal skeletons of “Broken Earth” or the firefly-like pinpoints of “Panspermia III.”

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Alternatively, life could have been transported by rocks that traveled between planets through a process called panspermia.

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We should also keep in mind the very remote possibility that life was seeded in the inner solar system by an “extrasolar gardener,” namely through “directed panspermia”.

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It is also worth noting that the new paper on tardigrades does poke a hole in the panspermia hypothesis, which posits that life may have developed on Earth after being brought here by an asteroid or other celestial body that slammed into our planet.

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Traspas, however, says it shows panspermia “is hard,” but not impossible.

Read more on Science Magazine