- René Demets: ESTEC, Noordwijk, the Netherlands. Rene.Demets@esa.int
The contributions of Svante Arrhenius, William Thomson, Hermann von Helmholtz, Hermann Richter, and Ferdinand Cohn to the development of the Panspermia theory have extensively been reviewed by Arrhenius himself (1908), Oparin ( 1938 ), and Kamminga ( 1982 ). Reading the original publications reveals the pivotal role that Charles Darwin must have played in shaping their ideas-an aspect that has not been highlighted before. It is argued that The Origin of Species not only kick-started the scientific development of the Panspermia theory in the 19(th) century but that biological evolution was an integral building block of it.