The idea life emerged long before Earth, and may be widespread in the universe, is fairly old: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panspermia https://en.wikipedia.or

The idea life emerged long before Earth, and may be widespread in the universe, is fairly old: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panspermia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panspermia I suspect that a formal, anonymous survey of astrobiologists would find that the idea is far more prevalent among experts than Ruvkin's estimate that "one per cent would buy into the idea of life spreading the way I’m sort of promoting it". It's just risky to express, for cultural reasons, until there's tangible proof. Many scientists are temperamentally reluctant to speculate without conclusive evidence, especially given the penchant of the press to sensationalize any such theories. It'd raise difficult questions about our place in the universe, and possibly popular fears. Thinking science had already settled on a consensus that simple life is everywhere might even paradoxically reduce funding for new missions to test the idea. After all, there have been tantalizing hints of life-processes on Mars going back to the Viking lander experiments of the 1970s – and yet we still can't seem to send a lab package that'd definitively answer the question! But the hope of figuring it out motivates new missions. (As should be clear, I'm strongly in Ruvkin's camp – and regularly comment to that effect here on HN: https://hn.algolia.com/?query=gojomo%20panspermia&sort=byDate&prefix=false&page=0&dateRange=all&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?query=gojomo%20panspermia&sort=byDat... )