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.
Thanks!
I’m cold. It’s 42° outside and 74° in here, and I’m certain I’ll never be warm again unless I’m in bed or in the shower!
Jake is probably still mad at you for leaving.
At least there will be few clouds in the sky today, but the rest of the week is going to be ugly.
Today’s effort was just that. Unngh!
Wordle 312 4/6
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Good morning. Happy Humph Day!
We had a lot of rain yesterday. Hopefully today will be better. The princess doesn’t get as long a walk when it’s wet out and the energy has to be let out indoors.
Another surprising Wordle day. Now the pressure’s on.
Wordle 312 2/6
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Any result better than 7/6 is a good result.
Excellent!!
Good morning!
Sorry about the rain and the doggie roughhousing indoors.
Even a loss is good in Wordle because it means I’m not perfect and therefore, I need to keep trying! ;o]
Good morning, ArGee!
Good Morning!
Wow, I thought that I was doing well, but ArGee kicks butt with back to back two-row solutions!!
👍🏻
Wordle 312 3/6
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What does the score sheet do, generally?
Some way of keeping track at how “fruitful” certain words are as starters?
4 rows is certainly a good show!!
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Nah, nothing quite so elaborate. It’s just a way of helping my CFIDS brain to figure out what letters have been used. Yes, I can see them but the QWERTY keyboard doesn’t make sense and is often confusing when I try to form another word so I have to use the alphabet in order.
It’s basically the alphabet, and below it is five spaces — like in hangman. I then circle the letters that are in the word and the one(S) that are in the right place, I add to the “Hangman” spaces.
It also has my score, (wins/losses and percentage) just for fun. And the date of course.
So mostly, it’s just a crutch. ;o]
Oh, I see... sounds like it makes sense to me (and more importantly to you!)... and it seems to be working well!!
Thanks. Let’s hope!
Yes, because, you see, I’m the person who can write something on my grocery list in two different places, go to the store, look right at the item and have to find a salesperson to tell me where it is, and only realize the item was written in two places when I get home. ;o]
I’ve had to learn to trick my mind, since having this disease, and this is just one more way to trick it into doing what I want done.
So yeah, it was either devise a way to play the game without whining (too much) or quit playing it.
I decided if I was going to build the bookcase, I’d have to make room for it, and all that work wore me out! Well, it needed to be done, and I have more room, so maybe tomorrow, I can make more progress.
All I want to do is take a nap, but somehow, I don’t think it’s permitted! In the meantime, I’m going to mix up some chicken salad for a sandwich.
How’s the reviewing going?
Wordle 952 3/6
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James has abandoned science and is reading the Wall Street Journal. Vlad has probably gone to nap. He’s having a really hard time with allergies right now.
We succeeded in getting him a pair of long, khaki pants for the team presentation on Friday. They’re just barely long enough at 30”, but they won’t be too short by Friday ;-).
Wordle 508 2/6
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“4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital”
I mashed 4077...
I’m sorry about Vlad’s allergies. The WSJ is most always a good read, though my favorite was the edition they printed on April 1, every year until the PC NAZIs stopped them.
Sometimes, kids just grow so fast it’s hard to keep them in anything that fits for longer than five minutes.
I hope your nap is restful!
My Favorite Son has the entire M*A*S*H series on DVDs.
It was great when it first started, but after a while, Alda got on his political platform and the show wasn’t funny any more. It was just a political message each week until it was finally cancelled.
</rant
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