最近，美国NASA赚足了眼球，事件起源于一段在网站上传的、题为“匿名者：美国航天局将宣布发现智慧外星生命”的视频。视频中称，NASA副局长托马斯 楚比兴曾在美国国会听证会上说，“我们的文明即将在宇宙中发现外星生物的证据”。这立刻就成了大新闻，国外诸多媒体纷纷援引报道。26日，楚比兴不得不通过社交媒体推特澄清：“与一些报道所说的相反，美国宇航局没有事关地外生命的待定宣布。”而在对视频发布者的账号进行仔细研究后，《华盛顿邮报》认为，这个账号与著名的黑客组织“匿名者”并无关系。所以，期待与外星人“第一次亲密接触”的小伙伴们，可能还得继续等下去了。

 不过，一直在探索，从不忘“搞事”的NASA，向来都是“手中有料，心中不慌”。这不，近日NASA就在网站上发布视频宣布，十几年一度的太阳活动极小期就快来了，这颗离我们最近的恒星即将发生一些变化。目前，太阳活动正向着低点而行。2014年，太阳黑子的数量曾经达到了相对的峰值，现在，它们正在向低谷滑落，预计将在2019-2020年达到低点。在太阳活动极小期期间，太阳的磁场减弱，屏蔽星际宇宙射线的能力也相应减弱，因此到达地球的宇宙射线数量将会增加。而这宇宙射线恰恰是导致2015年南美洲寨卡病毒爆发的真正的原因！

没发现外星人 但NASA说太阳即将改变

http://news.163.com/17/0630/14/CO6G7PNO000189A3.html

宇宙射线为什么会导致寨卡病毒爆发？请见本人和英国著名宇宙学家Chandra Wickramasinghe的最新论文的分析。

Was the Zika virus outbreak in 2015 triggered by cosmic events?

Jiangwen Qu¹ and Chandra Wickramasinghe^2,3*

1Department of Infectious Disease Control, Tianjin Centers for Disease Controland Prevention, China；2 BuckinghamCentre for Astrobiology, University of Buckingham, UK; 3 Sri LankaCentre for Astrobiology,  University ofRuhuna, Sri Lanka

*Corresponding:  N. Chandra Wickramasinghe, E-Mail: ncwick@gmail.com, Tel: +44 (0)2920752146 / +44 (0)7778389243

Abstract

The Zika virus outbreak in 2015 posed a serious public health threat, particularly in view of its association with congenital abnormalities. We point out that this outbreak may have been linked to a systematic increase in the flux of cosmic rays and a general decline of sunspot activity that has been observed over the period 2010-2017. Future surveillance efforts should in our view take account of such events.

Keywords:  Zika virus,sunspot activity, cosmic rays

The rapid spread of the Zika virus (ZIKV) in the Americas and its association withcongenital abnormalities such as microcephaly and Guillain Barré syndrome hasled the World Health Organization to declare an international public healthemergency on 1 February 2016.  ZIKV was first detected in Brazil in May 2015 and subsequently in severalcountries of South and Central America and the Caribbean.The cases of microcephaly in Brazil,potentially associated with ZIKV infection, were identified in November 2015.  RTPCR analyses on RNA extracted from Aedes aegypti mosquitoes captured fromJanuary to March 2015 in Mexico showedthe presence of ZIKV thus strongly suggesting that the mosquito vectorwas already carrying the virus at the start of 2015¹.  The ZIKV outbreak of2015 was possibly the largest and deadliest since the disease was firstrecognized in 1947, so it is reasonable tosurmise that some special or unusual factors played a role.

ZIKV is classified as an arthropod borne,single strandedRNA virus ofthe Flaviviridaefamily and genus Flavivirus.  Mosquitoes, especiallythe species Aedes aegypti mosquitoes,can be infected by different Zika viruses in nature. The viruses firstreproducein the mosquito'sintestines, and then enter other tissues through the blood, ultimately multiplyingin the salivary glands from which they can enter the blood of stream of amosquito-bitten victim.

With the eventual control of the 2015ZIKV outbreak, this infectious disease can be expected to remain endemicposing a considerable challenge for the foreseeable future. The globalcommunity will be well served if criteria can be discovered that might help predicta possible future onset and hence minimise the ravages caused by similaroutbreaks in the future. Virus mutation and/orrecombination events are likely to be the main possibilities for the emergence ofenhanced ZIKV disease severity in 2015, so it is necessary todiscover possible factors that may have led to such events.

Arecent study published in the Lancet arguedthat exceptional climatic conditions arising from the strong El Niño event in2015 in North Eastern South America might have contributed, albeit in a poorlydefined way, to the rapid dispersal of ZIKV².  It is of interest to note in thiscontext that the primary cause of the 2015/16 El Nino event itself mightpossibly have been linked to solar activity³.

Recent studies have shown that sunspot numbers and cosmic ray activity can play a role in the emergence of influenza pandemics, extremes of sunspotactivity to within plus or minus 1 year being identified as an important riskfactor for influenza pandemics⁴.  

Thesunspot cycle (No.24) that peaked in 2014 showed the lowest sunspot numbersrecorded since 1906 with a steady weakening trend of solar activity from 1980to the present day (Fig.1). These conditions are ideal for facilitating ingressof high energy galactic cosmic rays which could have mutagenic effects.  A systematic increase of cosmic rays in thestratosphere has been recorded throughout the period 2015-2017 alongside withthe general decline of solar activity (Fig.2)

Whilst a general decline in sunspot numbers can provide an open gateway for mutagenic cosmicrays, coronal ejections of charged particles from the sun that reach thestratosphere, can additionally set up electric fields (eg the Aurorae) thatbring down extraterrestrial viral-sized particles (including virions) to groundlevel^5,6,7. It is worth noting that both virion-sized particletransport as well as galactic cosmic rays could be localised with respect totheir points of arrival on the Earth’s surface. Thus an emergence of a new recombinant virus could be a highly localisedevent – for example the start of the new ZIKAV appearing in Mexico.

Recombination and reassortment of genesin an endemic virus with compatible new virions are known to occur at highly  variable frequencies in RNA viruses for example for Influenza A.  Recent genetic studies reveal that ZIKAV inthe 2015 outbreak is probably a recombinant virus^8,9,10, therecombination involving a component that may have undergone a cosmicray-induced mutation in 2015, and/or a virion arriving from an extraterrestrialsource.

In conclusion we make the bold suggestionthat a surveillanceof cosmicray activity on the ground, stratospheric sampling aswell as monitoring coronal discharges may serve asa potential warning of future pandemics. Such measures combined with otherepidemiological and genetic data might prove a useful factor for strategicdisease-control planning in the case of ZIKV as well

as of otherpandemic-causing viruses.

论文链接：

https://www.omicsonline.org/open-access/was-the-zika-virus-outbreak-in-2015-triggered-by-cosmic-events.php?aid=90426

著名宇宙学家Chandra Wickramasinghe

http://www.buckingham.ac.uk/directory/professor-chandra-wickramasinghe/

http://profchandra.org/category/blog/