Panspermia

1 definition found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Panspermia \Pan`sper"mi*a\, Panspermy \Pan"sper`my\, n. [Pan- +
     Gr. ? a seed.] (Biol.)
     (a) The doctrine of the widespread distribution of germs,
         from which under favorable circumstances bacteria,
         vibrios, etc., may develop.
     (b) The doctrine that all organisms must come from living


         parents; biogenesis; -- the opposite of {spontaneous
         generation}.
     (c) The theory that life on earth originated from spores or
         germs that evolved elsewhere in the uiniverse; -- in
         contradistinction to the theory that life evolved on
         earth from inanimate matter. This theory, originally
         suggested by S. Arrhenius in 1907, is sometimes advanced
         by those who feel that the time required for evolution of
         life is too long for life to have evolved on Earth from
         inanimate matter.
         [1913 Webster +PJC]