Although I have enjoyed the fanciful responses in this thread, there was
actually a proposal of this sort at one time. The English cosmologist
and novelist Hoyle once proposed that the periodic antigenic shift
exhibited by influenza virus could be explained if the new strains were
transfered to earth as our planet passed through a comet tail. My
comment: long on astronomical observation but quite short on basic
virology!
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Martin Hewlett, Ph.D.
Department of Molecular and
Cellular Biology
University of Arizona
Tucson, Arizona
"Contemplare, et contemplata
aliis tradere"
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