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 got that right! Maybe even some ice cream!
See post #3538
Small blessings are still blessings.
DP is planning a Mediterranean lamb dish. I suppose we should get a head count ...
Not bad, thanks, although my back ached a bit, so I turned over often. I was asleep when my alarm went off.
Sorry about your tornado!
Ohdear. Poor fluff. What did he get into this time? Not more bulbs, I hope.
A blessing without an anointing. I can live with that.
Well, they were so desperate for more bodies, so PW could show off her cooking skills that they invited a couple who had just moved into the ward.
I’m taking ice cream and chocolate syrup, and if folks don’t want carbs, then I’m perfectly happy bringing it all back home with me. Except for the cup of chocolate ice cream and the syrup I’ll be eating in front of everyone else.
Lamb is a lot more appropriate for celebrating the death and resurrection of a Jew than a big ol’ ham!
That sounds like a perfectly reasonable accommodation to the situation!
I love Tyson, who-isn’t-allowed-on-furniture.
Well, yes.
Kids shouldn’t be allowed on furniture either, but you can’t watch them all the time.
Good Morning ‘Face,
Birds are a wonderful example of technology becoming smaller over time...from Great lumbering beasts to pretty feathered flying beauties in only 65million years. epic.
Still hitting 30% of the wrong keys on the keyboard and living in a 10 minute time-slot, other than that everyone is fine thankenyou. :)
One is of course hoping that ‘Face is in fine fettle.
Not having a clue what you where doing five minutes ago does have an advantage at work. You can’t be nagged for anything because you have no idea how long you’ve spent on what you’re doing. “You’ve only been at it five minutes, give us a chance.” :)
We’ve cut back the lard ball’s chow, since he now outweighs mom.
According to the Dr, she should be 25 lbs heavier.
According to the Vet, he should be 35 lbs lighter.
I gave him a little extra last night. Apparently it didn’t quite agree with him.
Now stretched out with his head on my pillow. Good thing he’s cute...
Welcome to my world! I live my life with that as a current event since 1995. It's no fun, but it often exonerates one from responsibility: Did I do that? That's funny -- I don't recall doing it.
Yeah. I get it. ;o]
Animals who have been starved for whatever reason, tend to overeat when they’re finally in a situation where food is available to them 24/7. Or on demand. They just never know when they’ll eat again so they eat everything in their dish.
Of course they’ll eat people food, because it’s food. But if it is people food, it can cause digestive problems. The immediate effects can range from excessive gas to vomiting. But over time, deviation from the diet of specialized food (dog food is specialized food) can often upset their systems permanently.
Over time, they can develop diabetes, or just become obese, which causes a whole new set of problems.
I tried never to let my critters eat people food. Of course, I didn’t always live alone, so my critters often got people food. I know because I had a cat that would kill for a piece of green bell pepper, and a dog who would fight you for a slice of peach. Who knew they were being given that stuff?
Strange, it has the same effect on Humans too.
A bit of a struggle today…
Wordle 297 5/6
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Humans too. There was a large family across the street, when their skinny daughter grew up and lived on her own she gained about 100 lbs.
Tyson doesn’t get much in the way of people chow. We do have to watch mom like a hawk to keep him safe from foods that are bad for dogs. A lot of foodstuffs are out of inventory, no grapes or grape jelly in the house for example.
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