Posted on 12/29/2021 5:57:37 AM PST by Red Badger
A summary of decades of research on a rather 'out-there' idea involving viruses from space raises questions on just how scientific we can be when it comes to speculating on the history of life on Earth.
It's easy to throw around words like crackpot, rogue, and maverick in describing the scientific fringe, but then papers like this one, from 2018, come along and leave us blinking owlishly, unsure of where to even begin.
A total of 33 names were listed as authors on this review, which was published by Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology back in August 2018. The journal is peer reviewed and fairly well cited. So it's not exactly small, or a niche pay-for-publish source.
Science writer Stephen Fleischfresser goes into depth on the background of two of the better known scientists involved: Edward Steele and Chandra Wickramasinghe. It's well worth a read.
For a tl;dr version, Steele is an immunologist who has a fringe reputation for his views on evolution that relies on acquiring gene changes determined by the influence of the environment rather than random mutations, in what he calls meta-Lamarckism.
Wickramasinghe, on the other hand, has had a somewhat less controversial career, recognized for empirically confirming Sir Fred Hoyle's hypothesis describing the production of complex carbon molecules on interstellar dust.
Wickramasinghe and Hoyle also happened to be responsible for another space biology thesis. Only this one is based on more than just the origins of organic chemistry.
The Hoyle Wickramasinghe (H-W) thesis of Cometary (Cosmic) Biology makes the rather simple claim that the direction of evolution has been significantly affected by biochemistry that didn't start on our planet.
In Wickramasinghe's own words, "Comets are the carriers and distributors of life in the cosmos, and life on Earth arose and developed as a result of cometary inputs."
Those inputs, Wickramasinghe argued, aren't limited to a generous sprinkling of space-baked amino acids, either.
Rather, they include viruses that insert themselves into organisms, pushing their evolution into whole new directions.
The report, titled "Cause of Cambrian Explosion – Terrestrial or Cosmic?", pulls on existing research to conclude that a rain of extra-terrestrial retroviruses played a key role in the diversification of life in our oceans roughly half a billion years ago.
"Thus retroviruses and other viruses hypothesized to be liberated in cometary debris trails both can potentially add new DNA sequences to terrestrial genomes and drive further mutagenic change within somatic and germline genomes," the authors wrote.
Let that sink in for a moment. And take a deep breath before continuing, because that was the tame part.
It was during this period that a group of mollusks known as cephalopods first stretched out their tentacles from beneath their shells, branching into a stunning array of sizes and shapes in what seemed like a remarkably short time frame.
The genetics of these organisms, which today include octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish, are as weird as the animals themselves, due in part to their ability to edit their DNA on the fly.
The authors of the paper make the rather audacious claim that these genetic oddities might be a sign of life from space.
Not of space viruses this time, but the arrival of whole genomes frozen in stasis before thawing out in our tepid waters.
"Thus the possibility that cryopreserved squid and/or octopus eggs, arrived in icy bolides several hundred million years ago should not be discounted," they wrote.
In his review of the paper, medical researcher Keith Baverstock from the University of Eastern Finland conceded that there's a lot of evidence that plausibly aligns with the H-W thesis, such as the curious timeline of the appearance of viruses.
But that's just not how science advances.
"I believe this paper justifies skepticism of the scientific value of stand alone theories of the origin of life," Baverstock argued at the time.
"The weight of plausible, but non-definitive, evidence, great though that might be, is not the point."
While the idea is as novel and exciting as it is provocative, nothing in the summary helps us better understand the history of life on Earth any better than existing conjectures, adding little of value to our model of evolution.
Still, with solid caveats in place, maybe science can cope with a generous dose of crazy every now and then.
Journal editor Denis Noble concedes that 'further research is needed', which is a bit of an understatement.
But given the developments regarding space-based organic chemistry in recent years, there's room for discussion.
"As space chemistry and biology grows in importance it is appropriate for a journal devoted to the interface between physics and biology to encourage the debates," said Noble.
"In the future, the ideas will surely become testable."
Just in case those tests confirm speculations, we recommend being well prepared for the return of our cephalopod overlords. Who knows when they'll want those eggs back?
This research was published in Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology.
A version of this article was first published in August 2018.
Must be a Siberian tiger, eh? Looks about as uncomfortable as my late husky, Rusty. ;o]
I didn’t see the incident, so I don’t know if I would have described it as “giggling.” So many people go ballistic if you criticize their child that the adults won’t tell the child, “You’re being disruptive: knock it off!” They just pass the information via a messenger.
*sigh*
I get that. But there comes a time when we all have to act like the grown-ups we are and take responsibility as the only adult in the room.
People are just so afraid of bring parental wrath down upon their heads that they’re paralyzed. It’s easier to do it via messenger or email.
So now, I’m going to head for bed and hope I can stay awake long enough to study scriptures for 30 minutes or so.
I’ll see you in the morning. Have a good night!
I’m going to read to Kathleen a bit and then go to bed, myself. Long, cold day!
I dunno...looks pretty chill to me.
Here's a picture of Bill Murrray in What About Bob carrying his goldfish Gil.
Exactly!
A pair of squees today!
Good morning.
I hope you had a good night. Not sure if I did, but I’ll take it whatever it was.
We’re going to Walmart early, (0900+) so anything that was on the docket will have to wait. Or I’ll have to hurry and get it done now. Which may be a good idea.
I was wondering if I should get some drawers to put in the closet for storage. Just to make things neater.
The trunk is taking a lot of space but I can’t empty it until I get the sofa I want with storage underneath. Then I could put a lot of stuff in the trunk. You know, the stuff that isn’t going to be used for a while?
I just can’t live this way! GAH! And UNNGH!!!
Not bad, thanks, and I hope the trip to Walmart is a success. Asuncion rescheduled choir practice to noon. Even at 7:00, the only ice was in the shade. I need to see if the library will be open, because I want to pick up a book on the way to church.
I need to get Tom out again to drive with Vlad this afternoon.
It’s even got little old ladies enthralled...
Off to the library and then choir. Then maybe I’ll go to bed with Jake. Catch you later!
Finally back from Walmart, but they were almost an hour later picking me up, and then she couldn’t remember where we were going (drop off at Goodwill.)
While the Other Folks sat debating whether to let the helpers take the stuff out of the car, I was already out and lifting the hatch to make sure they didn’t take anything that was precious to PW. *sheesh*
We didn’t stop at the post office, but I was assured that they would go by there before 3:00PM to make sure that the package I had to mail was returned in a timely manner. How many things can go wrong in an hour?
All of them.
My things were completed successfully. I’m moving on to nap next, although Jake is hanging around the kitchen hoping someone will give him food.
Hey, Ganag!
Welcome 2 Kool 2 B 4-Gotten to the Undead Thread!
You know how we are about new people — no mauling in the Habitats!
For whatever it’s worth, my things were completed successfully, as well.
Now I’m very tired, but I’ve decided to just try and hang in there. My brain doesn’t seem to want to act normally, for some reason.
Let me know when you get up from your nap!
Hey it worked ‘Face. Thanks. OK here’s a story from way way back in my life.
I was in first grade. I guess the first grade teacher must have gotten to thinking that us kids were abusing the “Can I go to the bathroom ploy” to get out of class too often. The bathrooms were waaaay down the hall and I guess she thought that kids were going one after the other and hanging out in the hall or in the bathroom.
So she came up with a plan.
She cut out green and red circles of construction paper. The idea would be only one boy could go at one time and only one girl at a time (and at that age I guess boys and girls weren’t that interested in getting together outside of class).
So the idea was that if a boy went to the bathroom he’d turn the boy circle 180 degrees and the boys would see a red circle meaning stop.
And same for the girls.
Brilliant right?
Except she mixed up the circles so that if the boy flipped his green circle over the other side said “girl stop” and same with the girls if they flipped their green circle over it said “boy stop”.
I remember my first grade brain looking at this in action and thinking - hmmm something about this just ain’t right.
I think eventually the teacher figured it out.
And those were the people we paid to educate our kids.
class of 1998... well, yer still a n00b here!!! welcome aboard.
I don’t think we were ever that sophisticated in grade school. I mean, boys had sweaty palms and girls had the giggles, so what were the chances that they’d ever get together?
See? I told ya you’d never believe me!
Yep!
Unless they came aboard the USS Flying Castle by 2009, they’re all n00bs, Chode!
How ya doin’?
You got cold? It was 17° when I got up at 0620 this morning, and I’m in the country’s Midsection! (South, to hear the locals correcting me...)
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