You may not have heard of Chandra Wickramasinghe, but he is due to be sacked alongside all of his collegues at the center for Astrobiology at the University of Cardiff.
Yes, he and all his collegues were cheap (£15,000 a year, or $24,000), and yes, astrobiology is a very legitimate way to spend the money. But, on Chandra Wickramasinghe? Really?
Chandra who?
If Thomas Huxley was Darwin's bulldog, then Chandra Wickramasinghe is Fred Hoyle's poodle. For those unfamiliar with Hoyle, whilst he did some truly admirable work on nucleosynthesis early in his career, Hoyle eventually descended into bizarre claims and hare-brained theories, all of which Wickramasinghe eagerly promoted alongside his former supervisor.
Although most famous for objecting to the Big Bang (ironically coining the term himself whilst trying to dismiss the whole idea), Hoyle also objected to Darwinian evolution, preferring the idea that evolution occurred because mutating life forms continually fall from space, and was deliberately arranged long ago by a super-intelligent civilisation who wished to "seed" our planet. Seriously.
Other pearls of wisdom from the minds of Hoyle and Wickramasinghe are that
- Sunspots cause 'flu epidemics. Space is full of viruses that cause not only 'flu but AIDS and Legionnaire's disease as well. Storms on the Sun's surface (indicated by sunspots) were supposed to drive these viruses into the Earth's atmosphere, whereupon diseases spread.
- SARS is extraterrestrial and entered the world where the atmosphere is thinnest, i.e. at the Himalayas.
- Archaeopteryx was a fake because it doesn't seat with the Hoyle - Wickramasinghe theory of evolution by rain of mutating life forms. They even published a book together denouncing it, which was universally slammed;
"the book seems to portray a hatred of Charles Darwin and a most involved and twisted mentality towards zoologists. This libellous nonsense will remain for a long time a stain on the reputations of both authors."
"One of the most despicable pieces of writing it has been my misfortune ever to read"
"This book is couched in such intemperate language and contains such
demonstrable falsehoods, as well as hardly imaginable calumnies of persons unable to defend themselves, that it is exceedingly difficult not to fall into the trap of exploding into an emotional tirade. Its main thesis is patently ludicrous and can be proved to be false"
See what I mean? Not just a bizarre interpretation, just bizarre behaviour full stop. Tom Kemp put it well when he said
"Certainly the claim that Archaeopteryx is a fake should be investigated. But the investigation should be done by those who actually understand fossils, not a couple of people who exhibit nothing more than a Gargantuan conceit that they are clever enough to solve other people's problems for them, when they do not even begin to recognise their nature and complexity."
Wickramasinghe and Hoyle didn't even show any grace when another astronomer formed a theory similar to theirs. Rather than constructively working towards collaboration, Wickramasinghe and Hoyle could do nothing but pour on vitriol and accuse him of plagiarism,
Greenberg developed a theory that space contains "pre-organic" material which Hoyle and Wickramasinghe said was an unacknowledged copy of their own theory. "We must congratulate him on his startling accuracy," they said slyly. "These two men are constantly making these stupid accusations against me," Greenberg retorted. "I think they have never forgiven me for pointing out some years ago at a public meeting that they had made an elementary scientific error."
He has fanned the flames of creationism, even testifying in the case McLean v. Arkansas in defence of a state law requiring equal time for 'creation science' in biology classrooms. That is not what you should expect from a supposedly respected scientist.
Finally, this may not surprise you but he's the astrobiology editor of the dodgy Journal of Cosmology; the one which allowed the ridiculous Hoover microbe paper to be published,
“I personally invited Hoover to submit his paper because I’ve known him for a long time. If that Hoover stuff had come out the blue I would have been suspicious because it would have seemed almost too good to be true.”
Would it have been published if Wickramasinghe didn't have a vested interest in finding that there is pervasive life in space? I doubt it.
This is the thing. Its not that Wickramasinghe has some kooky theories; we could forgive him for that. No, its that he seems to have nothing but contempt for evidence, utter contempt for the scientific method, and contempt towards people who are experts in fields that he simply doesn't have a clue in. He has peddled the wacky ideas of Fred Hoyle for too many years and hasn't budged despite the entire lack of evidence. Its definitely time to go, Prof. Wickramasinghe.
I say good riddance. Its just a shame that Cardiff got rid of him only because they ran out of money.
