Formerly superintendent of the Norman Lockyer Observatory of the University of Exeter. Born in 1901, was educated at St. John's Hospital and Heles schools, Exeter; graduated with honours in physics (B.Sc.), London University, 1925. Lecturer in physics at Seale-Hayne Agricultural College, Newton Abbot 1930 to 1936, where he did biological research work for the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. Became Assistant Astronomer at Norman Lockyer Observatory, Sidmouth in 1936. Worked as Martin Kellogg Fellow in Astronomy at the Lick Observatory of the University of California, 1940-1941. At Kodak Research Laboratories, Harrow, 1941-1945. Returned to the Norman Lockyer Observatory in 1945 as Chief Assistant, was appointed Superintendent in 1956, retiring in 1961. Is a fellow of the Institutes of Physics, of the Royal Astronomy Society and of the Royal Photographic Society.

Donald Barber died in August 2000. His obituary is printed in the Blackwell Synergy® online journal: Astronomy & Geophysics - The Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society.

References

(2) Barry, John, The site of the origin of the 1918 influenza pandemic and its public health implications, Journal of Translational Medicine, 2, 3, (2004).

(3) Kolata, Gina, Flu, The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus That Caused It, Simon & Schuster, Touchstone, New York, (1999).

(4) Velikovsky, Immanuel, Worlds in Collision, The Macmillan Company, pp. 183-187 (1950). (Macmillan sold their rights to Doubleday & Company, Inc. in 1950 and there is also a hard cover first edition of Worlds in Collision by the latter publisher in 1950.)

(5) Shu, Frank, The Physical Universe, An Introduction to Astronomy, p. 532, University Science Books, Mill Valley, CA (1982).

Recommended sites and further reading

Flu from Venus? Time, 21 Feb 1944, page 90. [Excerpts from original article.] - Professor Louis Backman of Uppsala University, Stockholm, suggested that it was entirely possible that organisms causing recent flu epidemics had come from Venus, Jupiter or Mars. ... Laboratory workers know that that bacteria and other living cells can survive the near-absolute-zero temperature of interplanetary space. ... University of California professor Charles B. Lipman once claimed that he had found living bacteria locked in meteorites millions of years old. ...No one else has confirmed Lipman's finding, and scientists have remained skeptical. ... Backman believes it very unlikely that life originated on the earth; he thinks it more properly started in the more favorable atmospheres containg methane and ammonia gases which surround planets such as Jupiter, Venus and Mars. From them, he says, living organisms may have been transported to the earth by meteorites or by the propulsive power of the sun's rays. [Added 29 Oct 2005. Thanks to Google's daily alert service. Search phrase: venus influenza.]

Influenza Pandemic - AndyPryke.com. Good historical overview of influenza pandemics and influenza-like pandemics from 412 BC to present. [Added 4 Sep 2005.]

[PDF] Planetary Protection's Role in Astrobiological Exploration - John D. Hummel, NASA, and Margaret S. Race, SETI Institute. [Added 07 November 2004.]

Microbes.info - The Microbiology Information Portal
[Added 11 January 2004.]

[PDF] An Influence of the Heliogeophysical Conditions on Influenza Diseases in Azerbaijan During 1976-2000 - E.S. Babayev, R. Kh. Salman-Zadeh, F.E. Sadykhova, Sh. T. Shykahaliyeva. Abstract: The possible influence of solar and geomagnetic activities on influenza diseases is studied for the 1976-2000 interval. . . . Influenza epidemics usually begin 2-3 years before or 2-3 years after sunspot cycle maxima. We suppose that solar activity affects influenza epidemics mainly through geomagnetric activity. A forecast method for prophylactic measures is developed. [Added 2 December 2003. Edited]

Could SARS and the 1918 Influenza Pandemic be Caused by the Same Virus? - James A. Marusek says that the SARS virus contains a neurmidase, which is normally found in influenza viruses, and that SARS and the virus that caused the 1918 pandemic share the same initial gene sequence "MNPNQKIITIGS" implying that they are distant cousins. [Added 12 May 2003]

Madness - Gerald N. Callahan, Emerging Infectious Diseases September 2002.

Solar wind blows some of Earth's atmosphere into space - Science@NASA - December 8 1998. (Added 11 August 2002.)

Earth weaves its own invisible cloak Polar fountains fill magnetosphere with ions. - NASA Marshall Space Flight Center - space sciences features - December 9, 1997. (Added 11 August 2002.)

Dust Storm on Planet Earth - Astronomy Picture of the Day - 2000 March 3. (Shows 26 February 2000 picture of Saharan dust blowing out over the Atlantic.) Credit: SeaWiFS Project, NASA.

Influenza B Virus Outbreak on a Cruise Ship -- Northern Europe, 2000 [Outbreak occurred in the June 23-July 5, 2000 timeframe in the Baltic. Passengers were primarily from the United States.] "Although results of rapid viral testing for influenza A and B viruses were negative, immunofluorescence staining and viral culture results implicated influenza B as the cause of the outbreak." - CDC MMWR March 02, 2001 / 50(08);137-140.

All the World's a Stage...for Dust, NASA, June 26, 2001.

1976: Fear of a great plague - Paul Mickle - The Trentonian

Diseases from Space by Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe, J.M. Dent & Sons,
London, 1979.

The Flu Review by Nancy Waite, Pharm. D. and Eric Hobson, Ph.D. - Tips to travelers on reducing chances of catching flu.