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Life abhors a vacuum! G_d abhors a vacuum.

But we aren't talking about a vacuum, we're talking about the atmosphere.
Large volumes of air from the stratosphere at heights ranging from 20 to 41km were collected on 21 January 2001.
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Dr Wainwright isolated a fungus and two bacteria from one of the space derived samples collected at 41km. The presence of bacteria in these samples was then independently confirmed. These results are published in this month's issue of a prestigious microbiology journal FEMS Letters (Wainwright et al, 2002), published by Elsevier. The isolated organisms are very similar to known terrestrial varieties. There are however notable differences in their detailed properties, possibly pointing to a different origin. Furthermore, it should be stressed that these microorganisms are not common laboratory contaminants.

Notice how they collected air from "space?"
Makes sense to me that stratospheric germs would be different. That doesn't make them extraterrestrial.
The folks behind the research are pushing panspermia theory, and much of this article here is propaganda.

Notice how they collected air from "space?"

Yeah, you really can't send balloons to space. ;)

Makes sense to me that stratospheric germs would be different. That doesn't make them extraterrestrial.

But it doesn't rule it out, either. If Earth *is* being constantly seeded from space, then it makes sense that the incoming stuff would be similar to what's already here.

The folks behind the research are pushing panspermia theory, and much of this article here is propaganda.

Everybody has an agenda of some sort. This particular idea has been floating around for a long time, but there's a possibility that something concrete will be discovered when we finally get a sample from a comet...

"Nature abhors a vacuum" is a well know phrase. You are taking it too literally.

In this case I could say, "Nature abhors what is virtually a vacuum. Where one thinks life does not exist, it often does"