The Search for Bacteria and Viruses in the Stratosphere

As we enter a new decade a plethora of evidence pointing to our cosmic origins is close to the point of being overwhelming. The possibility that viruses and bacteria of extraterrestrial origin are implicated in the onset and propagation of pandemic diseases, although still a controversial hypothesis, is also coming to the fore as one of the more plausible explanations of recent epidemiologic data. A long-entrenched paradigm of Earth-centred biology appears to prevail in scientific culture, which we believe is stifling serious concern for monitoring the Earth's stratosphere for incoming bacteria and viruses and in consequence our safety. A matter of crucial importance for the next decade is to carry out a single decisive experiment that is long overdue -establishing empirically that extraterrestrial microbiota are continually being resupplied to the stratosphere and reaching Earth in biologically significant numbers.