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.
Good Morning!
A bit of rain to start the day, then a dip under freezing for the overnight...
I lucked out with an excellent 2nd row word today, that yielded:
Wordle 243 3/6
⬛🟨🟩⬛⬛
🟩🟨🟩⬛🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
w00t!
Good morning, -00! Vlad has gone off with his driver’s license to pick up Shannon’s pills from the vet.
That was me, this morning. Kitteh life.
Good morning.
I hope you slept well.
I’ve only been up an hour, but it’s taken me a while to get started. Now, I’m going to take a short break to get dressed and I’ll be back to really start my rainy, windy day.
Not bad, thanks. No cat that I recall.
18° here.
The Daily Bagel is out of business.
Ohno. Not the go-to place for morning bagels?? I hope it wasn’t Covid-driven.
We’ve got 60° here with lots of rain and sometimes thunder. Looks like an all-day event at the least.
I slept. I managed to get over four hours without waking up, so that was a small miracle. Then I shut the alarm off, like I said I wouldn’t do, and got three more hours. Then there were the three hours before waking up the first time. So yeah, I slept. Unusual for me, but there it is.
I had to turn the heater on to take the chill off and dry the place out, but it’s too warm for the way I’m dressed. So I’ll shut it off again in a minute.
When I went in to get dressed, I decided to rearrange the closet in there, (linen closet? Who knows? It has a support about three inches above a shelf) and then washed my face off and put it back on again, and here I am. For what it’s worth.
THE go-to place.
Murdered by COVID restrictions.
I’m still in my sweats because I’m going to get my haircut soon.
I am so sorry. It’s just a crying shame that all of these small businesses were shut down by an effort to induce the One World Order. Nothing but government-run/approved businesses in the future.
But don’t get me started. I saw this coming after I came back from two years in Germany, in the last century, but no one would listen to me. Now, I’m sure, they recall “someone told me a long time ago that...” and that’s where it ends.
Biden should be sued, along with his minions, but we know that will never happen. And why is it that the evil people seem to live forever?
I always manage to get my hair cut on a day when I shower as I want my hair to be clean, rather than smelling of night sweats. I haven’t learned to wear an old top for the occasion.
It will be a while longer before I can get my hair cut by someone other than me. The Problem Child is just that. So I’ll be another month as luggage.
The rain is really pouring down, now, so I’m definitely confined to quarters for the duration.
I guess we need it, but the day is so dark. Winter in Dog Patch, USA.
Now, I’m going to make my bed before it’s time to crawl into it again.
I washed my hair yesterday morning, and I’ll wash what’s left of it after the haircut.
w00t!
I took 6 tries today, and I had several more options to guess using the 4 letters in their correct places that I had. I could easily have failed today.
Wordle 243 6/6
🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩⬜⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
I used to wash my hair independently of any shower, but it got too painful to lean over the sink or tub long enough to wash it, so I began to just wash it while I was in the shower. It was OK as long as I was showering every day, but it dries my skin out too much, even with lots of lotions afterwards, so I only shower every other day, now.
One of the residents in Del Rio would say to me, every time she saw me, “Don’t get old, mija!” I know what she meant, now. At the time, all I could say was, “I’m not ready for the alternative!” I’m still not, but she must have been in a lot of pain to even say that to a stranger.
The bed is made, and pill sorting is next but it will require a pain pill, since I’ve been on my feet a lot already this rainy morning. The water is up the spout on the glass barometer, almost overflowing (which it did, yesterday) so I know this is not a good day going into it.
I just switched the hall lightbulb for the one in the floor lamp, and I don’t know if the brightness was improved as much as the glow changing from gold to blue. Not sure I like the blue, but EPA got its fingers into the pie and we don’t have any decent lighting any more. </rant
Good for you!!
I finally talked my FD into at least looking at the game. She said people in the office didn’t like it because after a while it got too hard and “it wouldn’t let them win any more.” Hmpf. Bad spellers of the world, untie!
And thanks!
I didn’t notice it until I realized I was at the end of another 20 posts and it was me!
I used to do a pretty good impression of someone pulling the starter rope on my head and it refusing to start. It’s hard to describe in text, though.
This is a coffee shop called “Uncommon Grounds” that sells bagels and things also. It’s chief competitor died.
It’s on Broadway. Yes, that same road, but not in New York City. I have heard it’s the longest continuous street (that doesn’t change names) in the U.S.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.