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 Monday morning!
Some things come to me rather late, and it was like that this morning.
As I was trying to find the solution to Wordle, it dawned on me that it was the Reader’s Digest version of Hangman. I can’t say it was any easier to solve that way, but I did solve it in four! ;o]
Some of them are claiming they couldn’t get enough sleep because of allergies. However, there is the fact that they were still up playing video games long after I went to bed ...
I’m having difficulty getting the old person up and moving.
The clothes are hanging to dry, and I tried to tighten the grate over the HVAC vent, but my upper arm strength isn’t all that great.
It’s a gloomy rainy day again, and this time, I’ve had to turn the A/C on to help with the drying process. *sigh*
I’m going back through the forestry manual with Frank. I’m not sure what’s happened to James and Vlad, but they are very quiet ...
Good Morning!
Looks like we both got off to a good start on the Wordle week:
Wordle 310 4/6
🟨🟨⬛⬛🟨
🟨🟨🟨⬛🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
(I thought that I might have had it in 3, but not the case!)
Supposed to be a full day of rain here today... but since it has been so dry, no one can rightly complain about it...
Good morning! Not bad for a rainy Monday. (And we could use the rain.)
Wordle 310 4/6
🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟩⬜⬜⬜🟨
🟩🟩⬜🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
I’ve discovered one important tip in solving Wordle sooner.
Don’t throw your beeber in frustration.
For what that’s worth.
Beware when the child is quiet!! LOL!
Frank doesn’t realize that he needs to learn the stuff or you wouldn’t have to go back over it with him.
I was hoping I’d be able to work on something in a box today, but Mondays always seem to take the best out of me. So I’ll wait until tomorrow!
Yeah, there is that. But I use the laptop, so throwing it isn’t an option.
I feel good when I make it in five! LOL!
I have a feeling some of them are asleep again.
The last time I was in so much rain was when we lived in Puget Sound. They had over 100” of rain a year, there. We may need it, but I don’t have to like it! I figured out I won’t shrink, so where’s the fun?
👍🏻 on both counts!
Some days are better than others for solving it, but I do enjoy it! I try to do a crossword, as well, but that often takes longer.
👍🏻
I don’t think that I could ever live in a place that has so much rain....
Yeah.
Me. Too.
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