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.
Thanks!
I’ll be OK. I just wasn’t feeling well when I got up and that usually end up affecting how my brain functions. I’ll be OK.
I can smell the food now, so that’s a good thing!
FD says they have another winter storm swooping down on them. The one that hit the day she got back from the funeral in Utah was under whiteout conditions. What was normally a 45-minute ride from the airport became a two-hour ride in the driving snow.
Then she commented that she thought Las Vegas had made her complacent! Yeah. The weather is consistently nice there!
Good Monday Morning!
Hoping that your M-I-L continues to heal and gets in to a rehab center soon!
Bad outing on Wordle today, but I was distracted by 4 new puppies... that’s my excuse!
Wordle 226 6/6
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Welcome, puppies.
Puppies are a good excuse.
What kind of puppies? Besides cute ones, I mean! ;o]
Getting music started for next Sunday. Jake suggests that it’s naptime, so that could be the next thing, after I choose two more songs.
My food is beginning to smell pretty good! I need to check it again, soon.
I won’t be napping again today, but I’ll most certainly go to bed sooner than I have been, recently!
I have Cub Scouts tonight, so I’ll be out late for me. I’m going to make more bean soup.
This is one of those days when I’m forcing myself to stay awake. That means getting up every so often. I’m not focusing very well, but I’ll make it through this day!
It took six tries today, as well...
To die for!!
Thanks, ArGee!
I got on the phone with USAA and got the documents the boys need for their DMV appointments tomorrow.
Go YOU! Excellent news!
I don’t know what I’ll be doing tomorrow besides finishing up on today.
The storm that is hitting FD is going to make a mess of FS and I later in the week, according to what I’ve seen so far today on the weather reports. We might even see some snow.
I figured it was going to hit us without too much loss in force.
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They are 4 Great Pyrenees pups, that look to be purebreds...
Unfortunately, out here ‘people’ often dump dogs that they no longer wish to care for...
It looks like someone dumped the mother (or possible dumped her with her litter)...
When we first went by, it looked like there were 7 of them... laying on the road and in the scrub along the road, we looped back and were able to pickup 4 of them... we went back a few more times later in the day, but could not find any more...
So we will keep them together for a few more weeks, and it looks like we have homes all setup already for all 4 of them...
We didn’t give up!
Thank you, Z!
And thank goodness for people like you! I have no use for irresponsible pet owners.
On our long drive yesterday, we saw at least three kittens (two smaller ones and what looked to be a “teenager”) that had been hit by cars. I quit looking at the road and started looking at the forests and fields.
But don’t get me started. I know times are tough, but at least take them to a shelter, if you don’t want them any more. Don’t just dump them. There aren’t always zzeemans to pick them up and care for them!
Good morning. Happy Twosday!
Kitteh is happy it wasn’t abandoned.
We have a high of 32 foreguessed for today and 40 foreguessed for tomorrow. I guess I’ll believe it when I see it. We’re starting at 1 so we have a way to go.
I hear the NY Slimes has bought Wordle for a big pile of money. So that’s how they made money off it. We’ll probably have to pay, or look at ads soon. Until then:
Wordle 227 4/6
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Now there’s a face I could love!
Good morning. I hope you slept well.
I think I clocked 11 hours in addition to the two-hour nap I had yesterday morning. And as for being sick, I think it was food poisoning. Most likely gotten from Arby’s, where we stopped for lunch. I ended up taking charcoal pills for the nausea and that took care of the problem. I’m very susceptible to food poisoning, thanks to my history of ulcers.
Now, I need to get some breakfast, take my pills, finish getting dressed and start my day, whatever it is I’ll be doing.
How was Scouts last night?
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