There is, in my opinion, strong circumstantial evidence that bacteria and viruses are thriving in the upper atmosphere of Venus (about 52 Km up, where temperature and pressure are like Daytona Beach) and that, frequently, during inferior conjuntions of Venus with Earth, some of them get blown to Earth by the solar wind.

Each of the influenza pandemics of the 20th century started one to two months following Venus inferior conjunctions.

See: Influenza 1918, A Venus Connection?
http://www.shadetreephysics.com/vel/1918.htm

Warning! That's a pro-Velikovsky link.

An influenza virus could not survive the ultraviolet radiation on a trip between venus and earth. A virus is also too heavy to escape from venus's gravity under normal circumstances. But it is possible there could be life in the atmosphere of venus.

I'm thinking in terms of the viruses riding along inside the bacteria.
(Bacterial space ships!)

Suppose the virus had an electrical charge on it, same polarity as on Venus.
Venus could be electrically catapulting them into outer space.

Venus has no measurable magnetic field. The solar wind can literally blow atmospheric molecules (and atmospheric baggage ) our way. I've even seen one article about the solar wind blowing some of Earth's atmosphere down the street.

I'm afraid bacteria couldn't survive the UV either.

Every cell of my body maintains an an electrical charge but we can't move them using an outside electrical charge. It would be intersting if we could. Instead of taking the train to work we could float down an electrically charged tube.

Check out NASA's article about "Conan the Bacterium"
http://www.astrobio.net/news/article353.html


You can move almost anything with electrical charges (if you do it right).
The electrical force between two protons is about 10exp 42
stronger than the gravitational force.

To survive the cold and vacuum of space a bacterium would have to be dormant which would prevent it from repairing damage from UV.

We should make jets and rockets powered by this force.

How many Venus inferior conjunctions have not been followed by influenza pandemics?

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One correspondent of mine (who was against the premise of Venusian baddies coming to visit) assured me that the trip was NOT the problem. He felt that penetrating our airspace with out burning up was the issue.

We do! There are ion drives in solar system service right now.
I don't have my fingertips on references, but those babies are out there.

I don't know. I worked the problem the other way around. Whenever a new strain of influenza led to a pandemic, I checked for whether or not Venus was in "firing position" at the right time. Each time, it was.

Here's my latest histogram which shows the delay times from Venus inferior conjunctions to outbreaks of new kinds of influenza and influenza-like diseases.



Donald Barber, at the Lockyer Observatory in England, (He's the guy that got me started on this kick.) reported that he only got his "bacteria from rainwater" invasions when there was a Venus inferior conjunction accompanied by a geomagnetic storm. (Rain was also a requirement to get the bacteria to the ground.) His study is not online but if you want to follow it up, the reference is:

Barber, Donald R., Invasion by Washing Water, Perspective, 5, 201-208, 1963.

Among other things, you're just picking reports of outbreaks of various diseases (influenza viral strains, SARS coronavirus, and Legionella bacteria) and matching them up (more or less - within 16 to 210 days) with certain dates. There are plenty of other outbreaks of various diseases, why not plot them?

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What were his assurances based on? At this point, we don't have evidence that there is life on Venus and it has not been established that viruses or bacteria could reach Earth with any kind of regularity. It is also hard to understand why there would be viruses on Venus that could infect humans, and that are genetically so similar to the many strains already on Earth.

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Robert S. Fritzius: Have you defined a hypothesis, related to this idea, in sufficiently clear terms that it is amenable to formal statistical analysis?

If so, what is the hypothesis?

If not, do you intend to develop one?

The hypothesis is that there are bacteria and viruses in the upper atomosphere of Venus (they've got to be acidophiles) and that during Venus inferior conjunctions with Earth, some of them can be swept away by solar storms and reach Earth in a viable state. Based on 20th century events it appears that these Venusian "drop-ins," (including influenza and influenza-like illnesses) tend to make themselves known one to two months after the inferior conjunction.

I don't have a formal protocol, but starting in 2001 I began keeping track of the inferior conjuctions and solar storms to see if my perceived pattern continues. I found it of particular interest that the new strain of influenza A(H1N2) was first detected in India on May 31st 2001. That happened to be the final day of my "non-prediction" one-to-two months window.

On 18 August Venus just went through an inferior conjuction with Earth. I haven't checked yet, but if a good sized CME happens within a few days either way of the 18th then I personally will be looking for some new kind of influenza-like illness to appear between September 18 and October 18.

This is not proof, about the viruses or bacteria, but I think it gets close, at least partially.

Life on Venus may be microbe clouds
Houston Chronicle Oct 14 2002
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/space/1616042.html

Re similar strains.
We've had a few thousand years (if the process is in fact taking place) for the mingling process to develop.

The idea is not that I be the one to plot them, rather that somebody somewhere will think it's an interesting problem and do it.

If there was a very low correlation between the illness outbreaks and Venus happenings then I don't think anybody should spend their time on such a project.

Re: the 16 to 210 days. The question might be, how come there are no
outbreaks of widespead import that have occured from days 210 to 284?

If you make a histogram based on a calendar year, instead of the Venus synodal period, you get the outbreaks in a "more homogenized" fashion.

Actually I made one. Here's a copy.

curious, what are the distinct differences between bacterium and let's say red blood cells, or white blood cells, or cells that make up muscle tissue?

What, in your hypothesis, constitutes "influenza and influenza-like illnesses"?

What investigation have you done to determine the reliability and completeness of reports of 'first case' new illnesses?

What do you estimate to be the total mass of material which is being blown from "the upper atmosphere of Venus"?

What is the lifecycle of the viruses, in their native habitat ("the upper atmosphere of Venus")?

If you haven't done any statistical analysis, how do you rule out whatever null hypothesis anyone may choose to posit, based on your loosely worded post?

Bacteria are smaller than the cells that make up your body and plants and animals. Bacteria are the smallest free living form of life. Some of them create endospores in response to harsh conditions (commonly called bacteria spores) that can sometimes survive for hundreds of years. Being small they are simpler than our cells, but still pretty complex despite their small size. The earliest life on earth would have been something even simpler than current bacteria. Bacteria are pretty much everywhere and can multiply quickly in the right conditions and places like ho