Professor Milton Wainwright is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, University of Sheffield. This talk was given on 27th March 2014.

This talk will explore Milton's work as a British microbiologist who became world famous for his claims to have found extra-terrestrial life in the stratosphere. His research interests are in Astrobiology and History of Science. He claimed that the idea of natural selection is not original to Darwin or Wallace theory. Also, he has claimed that the Red rain in Kerala is a biological entity. Wainwright has also written widely about the history of the discovery penicillin (including that Hitler’s life was saved by the drug) and streptomycin and on the theory that bacteria and other non-virus microbes cause cancer.

Milton Wainwright is a British microbiologist who became world famous for his claims to have found extra-terrestrial life in the stratosphere. His research interests are in Astrobiology and History of Science. He claimed that the idea of natural selection is not original to Darwin or Wallace theory. Also, he has claimed that the Red rain in Kerala is a biological entity. Wainwright has also written widely about the history of the discovery penicillin (including that Hitler’s life was saved by the drug) and streptomycin and on the theory that bacteria and other non-virus microbes cause cancer.

Milton graduated from the University of Nottingham in the field of Botany. He obtained a PhD from the same university in the field of Mycology. Afterwards he went to the National Research Council of Canada as postdoctoral fellow, where he obtained a qualification in Environmental Microbiology. After his postdoctoral fellowship, he went to work at the University of Sheffield.