Greetings DA,
I wasn't thinking that impact would destroy the incoming organic materials. I was thinking more along the lines of heat as a meteoric carrier passes through the atmosphere. But that is moot in any case, since this organic stuff can simply "drift" down through the air. I would not expect it to come down in obvious clouds or "rain", since it was pretty thin stuff when in space.
The problem with the panspermia, as I see it, is how can you tell. Would there be some way to distinguish home-grown life from the not-invented-here kind? As a scientific problem this one seems to be a real poser. What if both happened? As I have said, I am not a bio-scientist. I have no idea how to go about answering such question, where an actual expert might see how.
I haven't thought about Velikofski (spelling?) in years. If memory serves, his idea was that Venus was spat out by Jupiter and that this is what caused the the Great Red Spot to form. Then Venus went flying around the system causing all sorts of changes before settling in its current orbit. This is the kind of stuff that would make Laplace spin in his grave. Doesn't it just seem more reasonable that Venus was formed with the rest of the solar system?
Perhaps Velikofski had some good ideas to get across, but its hard to tell. I try to keep an open mind, because there have been many examples of good scientific ideas that were unfairly ridiculed. There are cases where not speaking the "lingo" has gotten in the way. That's what my remark about Mayer is all about. The conservation of energy is central in the physical sciences. Mayer had actually thought it through and got it right, from the modern perspective. Joule also figured out the same principle. He took the time to express himself clearly and got listened to. In fact, Thompson initially thought it was wrong, but eventually came to see the truth in it. This is why I don't reject things out of hand.
I agree with you that our ancestors were not numbskulls - well not ALL of them! (LOL)
Dr. R.
