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Those of you who know me, know that I am a huge Hard-Science Fiction fan (science based fiction, like the book The Martian by Andy Weir).   

One of the concepts about the origin of life on planets comes from the concept of panspermia (the hypothes that life exists in other places in our solar system or the universe and was distributed by chance or other alien beings).  My favorite example of this in fiction is the first scene in the Alien's series "Prometheus".  

This week scientists tested some of the theories on panspermia.  Basically, they put algae OUTSIDE of the International Space Station.  

"They’re alive! Two algae survived 16 months on the exterior of the International Space Station ISS despite extreme temperature fluctuations and the vacuum of space as well as considerable UV and cosmic radiation."

-Dr. Thomas Leya at the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology

 

We applaud this awesome research!  Here are some links to their findings:

https://www.fraunhofer.de/en/press/research-news/2017/february/algae-survive-heat--cold-and-cosmic-radiation.html

https://www.fraunhofer.de/content/dam/zv/en/press-media/2017/February/ResearchNews/rn02_2017_IZI_Algae%20survive%20heat,%20cold%20and%20cosmic%20radiation.pdf