Space Education & Strategic Applications Volume 1, Number 1, Spring/Summer 2020 | Page 17

Introduction to Our Featured Article
On Intuition
“I grew up in a Buddhist culture in which our connection with the external cosmos
was deeply impressed. So when I began studying science, particularly biology, which
is Earth-centred in a very fundamental way I was shocked into thinking about these
things – perhaps thinking in a different way to the way Western science had developed
over hundreds or thousands of years.”
~ Chandra Wickramasinghe
On Scrutiny
Despite thirty years of working on his and his mentor’s (Sir Fred Hoyle’s) theory of
“Cometary Panspermia” they experienced significant scrutiny and disagreement
in the astronomical, biological, and medical fields. Their evidence for “Cometary
Panspermia” and disease from space was mocked, their ideas actively suppressed,
and their peers abandoned them without responsibly reviewing their work. Fortunately
for us and our planet, our author and his mentor did not give in to consensus,
and published over 300 papers in major scientific journals, over 75 in the
journal Nature on Panspermia and disease from space, as well as over 30 popular
books.
He provides sage advice to scientists—young and older, taken from the last words
of Buddha to his main disciple, Ananda:
“Be lamps unto yourselves,
Hold fast to Truth as a lamp;
Hold fast to the truth as a refuge.
Look not for a refuge in anyone beside yourselves.”
~ Buddha
Without further ado, it is my pleasure to introduce the esteemed author of our
featured article and developer of astrobiology.
Our Featured Author: Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe
Our featured author for this special inaugural issue of the Space Education and
Strategic Applications journal, Professor Wickramasinghe, was born in Sri Lanka
and was educated at Royal College, Colombo and later at the University of Ceylon.
In 1960 he obtained a First Class Honours degree in Mathematics and won a Commonwealth
scholarship to proceed to Trinity College Cambridge.
He commenced work in Cambridge on his PhD degree under the supervision of
the late Sir Fred Hoyle, the iconic astronomer of the 20 th century, and published
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