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.
You can say, “Thanks for the offer (to house-sit), but that would leave my own apartment vulnerable. I’ll stop by occasionally, though.”
Well, in defense of the situation yesterday, where I was trying to keep the focus on Abbie, I felt that to say any more than what I already had may cause hard feelings somewhere. So I opted to leave it for the time being.
Abbie had had her hair done darker (she’s naturally a dishwater blonde) and at the lunch table she was having trouble thinking and getting the words out. Then she said, in apology, “That’s funny. I never had trouble talking when I was a blonde!”
I gave her a Walmart gift card with instructions to buy whatever she wanted, excluding food or other necessities, and she said she would by yarn! Whatagal!
Of course you wouldn’t want to make that the focus when it was Abbie’s birthday. Sally has her hair a new color at least once a month.
LOL! I’m familiar with Sally’s hair color experiments.
I want to try and get mine done a pastel shade with a new style and was asking PW about where she got hers done. She told me, adding, “But she charges $80 for color and style!!” (I got the message.)
But it would be so nice to have a new look!
If you got a cut, maybe Abbie could do the color for you.
She had hers done at the same place PW had hers done, as a birthday present from family out west, so I don’t think it’s something she’s familiar with.
I’ll just keep it as one of those things to admire on other people. It’s no big deal.
A darker color over blondish won’t grow out as obviously as the reverse.
Asuncion had kind of a lavender wash over gray for a while, but she’s given up on it and got a trim with her natural color, which is less gray than mine although we’re the same age.
I didn’t start to really go gray until about five years ago, and then it just kind of exploded, though it’s still dark away from my face. PW gave me a left-handed compliment yesterday by saying my hair was “silver.” In my family, it all goes to white. My Real Brother has it, and my older sister, though I think hers was hurried along by illness. My Unreal Brother had it too, but his started when he was in his 50’s — much earlier than any of the rest of us.
FS is beginning to show a little gray, but he has learned how to cut his own hair, so he keeps it about 1/8th of an inch long. He always had such beautiful curls, so I’ve hated to see it so short!
I think it’s better for your son to have short hair than mountain man do’s like Tom and James. Sally made a song about James’s hair on some music-animation app, and now we all sing, “Parasitic head hair!” at least once a day.
He kept it neat and just barely at shoulder length or shorter, and it had that lovely red cast that our hair is “famous” for, but I guess he figured it was too much bother, and once he had it cut short, he kept it that way. Then I guess he decided to see how his beard trimmer would work on it, since it advertised for cutting hair, and the rest is history.
No more curls. But as a businessman, I guess it makes more sense to keep it short and neat. So it is.
“Parasitic head hair!?” How funny!!
And now, because tomorrow is an early day for me, I’m heading in to do some scripture study before I fall asleep.
Have a good night, and I’ll see you early in the AM!
Off to watch the laundry show! Be back soon!
“And you want me to believe....”
Wishing everyone a pleasant and uneventful thawing....
Good morning. It’s only mildly freezing here.
25 fs here. The natives are trying to roust me OOB but one must have coffee before trying to navigate among elderly quadripeds that try to trip one. What’s new w/Jake and Shannon?
...and yes I posted this 4 years ago.
ps click view image to see actual hirez image
Good morning, everyone! Happy Monday!
I hope everyone survived the Superbowl.
It got cold again here, but will be warming after today.
30-40 years ago, I had workout tees printed for my weight partner and family with a snarling black panther and, "I'm on a diet." We needed inspiration.
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