Researchers from Indian Space Research Organisation and the Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics seem to hove stumbled on to what can possibly be extraterrestrial microbes in the higher reaches of the atmosphere. If their findings ore borne out by further experiments, it will certainly be a leg-up for exobiology, the study of the possibility of life elsewhere in the cosmos (See Career-Exobiology - December 2000 issue of Biology Today). Scientist always look forward to the discovery of alien life-be it in a Martian meteorite found here on the Earth, or on some other planet in space - with a mixture of anticipation and anxiety. The excitement, of course, springs from anticipating the first ever encounter with extraterrestrial life. But then there is also the very real and frightening possibility of such life fuming out to be some kind of virulent and deadly microbes.
This is a major worry
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