panspermia

[ pan-spur-mee-uh ]

noun

, Biology.

1. the theory that life exists and is distributed throughout the universe in the form of germs or spores that develop in the right environment.

Other Words From

• pan·spermic adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of panspermia¹

1835–45; < New Latin < Greek panspermía mixture of all seeds. See pan-, -sperm, -ia

Example Sentences

Inspired in part by the organic networks generated by fungi, Covey fills her pictures with repeated organic forms, whether the animal skeletons of “Broken Earth” or the firefly-like pinpoints of “Panspermia III.”

From Washington Post

Alternatively, life could have been transported by rocks that traveled between planets through a process called panspermia.

From Scientific American

We should also keep in mind the very remote possibility that life was seeded in the inner solar system by an “extrasolar gardener,” namely through “directed panspermia”.

From Scientific American

It is also worth noting that the new paper on tardigrades does poke a hole in the panspermia hypothesis, which posits that life may have developed on Earth after being brought here by an asteroid or other celestial body that slammed into our planet.

From Salon

Traspas, however, says it shows panspermia “is hard,” but not impossible.

From Science Magazine