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.
Your past vehicular insurance records have the VIN information, not that you need it anymore.
That’s good to know.
I got next Sunday’s music pulled together, and now, I think it’s naptime.
I was more thinking more about Peter. But I don’t want to put in any spoilers.
I don’t have them any more, Bob. When I sold the car and canceled the insurance, I shredded the insurance documents. I was moving to another state where I would need a new agent and new coverage for a different vehicle, and it was paperwork that didn’t need to be transported.
But I’ll remember that, on the off chance that this Toyota doesn’t outlive me, and I want to sell it!
Yes, well, spoilers are OK, because I usually forget them anyway until I see what was presumably spoiled! ;o]
And then it’s, “Oh, yeah! I remember hearing about this part from someone! Or maybe I read it. Or saw it online? Or...”
Naps are always good. I’m still cold. I’m not liking how I’m feeling, but maybe I’ll go to bed early tonight. Maybe. Or not.
Tickets to the Earth Undersea Octopus Adventure (yes, YOU can live as an octopus for 3 years) are almost sold out. cheaper tickets 'be undersea grass' - - the 'meditation' adventure of the planet - are still readily available.
Jake was persuaded that the nap was a good idea. I moved Shannon’s sleeping bag into the early afternoon sunbeam, but that made her mad.
I was going to try not to spoil it for others, since you’ve already seen what I’ve seen, and then some.
I have? Oh. May just the first part of it, but I need to watch it again just to make sure. ;o]
Naps are always good, I’m told, and naps with cats are excellent!
I just had a massive, radical mood swing. I need to re-think the rest of my day. (I hate CFIDS.)
I’m sorry about your mood swing. I hope the rest of your day isn’t too bad.
Kathleen is cleaning up a cat spew. She thinks she is too refined for this, but she is wrong. Maybe I should send her over to our frontier living friends to kill and pluck chickens!
If Kathleen pets the cats then she should be aware that there is a certain responsibility in doing so. Otherwise, she may have to go see how chickens are killed and plucked. Worked for me with pheasants, though I had no idea that people even ate them. A lesson I won’t forget, I suspect.
Why does the term “mood swings” always make me think of those old Archie Campbell, Roy Clark bits from “Hee Haw”?
Oh, that’s bad.
No, that’s good!
Oh, that’s good.
No, that’s bad!
Yeah. No. I wish it were that simple. They hit me like a ton of bricks, and I can’t fight them off or talk myself out of them. I just have to weather them until they’ve passed. Sometimes, it’s a long process, and I don’t want to subject other people to them because the moods are irrational to begin with. Other times, they don’t last long.
In my former life, it was very difficult to make me angry, and things seldom bothered me. If confronted with a surprise, I took it in stride and found a way solve it, overcome it or deal with it in a rational manner.
These days, and for a very long time, mood swings don’t allow me to be rational when confronted with a problem, and often, they leave a lingering feeling of unease.
So yeah, I hate them.
That’s probably TMI, but...
Thanks for the info on the series!
Makes sense to me...
For a while, it was almost warm in here. Now it’s getting chilly, and the temp is at 33°, heading for a low of 21°. Br-r-r-r!
Our forecast low for tonight is a relatively warm 29 degrees Fahrenheit... then warmer until Thursday night...
I don’t recall it being that cold in Del Rio, and I spent three winters there. But that was a while ago, so...
Anyway, I hate the cold.
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