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. Vlad and I just finished the WSJ crossword online.
I need to take the trash out but at the moment, the cold is making the task a little more daunting than I would like.
Soon, it will be time for FS to arrive, then close on his heels, (maybe) will be the maintenance man. I don’t think he heard me yesterday when I said, “The door is on backwards.”
*sigh* Children.
I was up far earlier than I wanted to be.
I was up later than I wanted to be.
All the children have disappeared.
It’s overcast and damp out, and when I was coming back from the dumpster, I noticed that the screen in tilted in the frame to the top in not flush. I took photos and just sent them with a missive that requested the job be finished today.
We’ll see what happens.
What a fuddle. I’ll be leaving in about 45 minutes for a church meeting, rescheduled from Monday when I was totally surrounded by water. I told DP to assume that the children are having a sick day (i.e., a bunch of slugs) and I’ll deal with it when I get home.
I guess now is a good time to call another insurance agent, since I don’t want to pay through the nose for the one I have.
Good luck on your church meeting!
*tagline*
Just got word that The Guy has asked FD to marry him. Finally. Not sure how I feel about it, but if she’s happy, that’s all I care about.
No word on the date.
Oh, dear. I hope it works out one way or another.
Neither FS nor I are happy about it, but it is FD’s choice.
FS and I had an eye into the future, and neither of us liked it. It’s very hard to watch a child make a mistake that could be avoided.
It may be simple bureaucrat deafness.
My brother (a lawyer) told me a story once about him arriving at the airport late in his rental car. It was one of those smaller airports and a while ago. He parked the car at the curb and ran in to the rental care company. He told the person at the desk he was late and he was leaving the car out front. He said he was willing to pay. The bureaucrat at the desk only heard “dropping the car out front” and went into “that’s not allowed” mode.
My brother finally asked, “Do I have insurance on this car?”
She said, “Yes.”
He said, “OK, I’m going to go drop a match in the gas tank. You can collect the insurance.”
She let him leave the car.
I give up on the idiocy of people who think mediocrity is the thing to do these days. Actually, this doesn’t even fit in with mediocrity. I don’t think the guy knew what he was doing or didn’t read the instructions. He made a lot of noise but the end result was a mistake.
Maybe it’ll never happen.
Kids and I went over to our new church property to look at the runoff management. The building committee chairman was pretty grouchy about how much it cost - mandated by the county - but it looks like it worked really well to retain water and keep construction sediment out of the waterways.
Once the construction is done, it can be more landscaped, and the environmental committee can attract waterfowl and stuff.
The new church is a rectangular cleared spot occupied by a bulldozer, but it’s something. Jim says we’ll have Mass there by the end of the year even if we’re standing up and holding flashlights!
Francis Chan and his Church were working on a $25M building project when he went to India and saw what poverty was.
He came back and told his Church there was no way they needed to spend $25M on a building when there was such poverty in the world. He said, “We’re in Southern California! We can meet outside. We can hold umbrellas if it rains.
Eventually he and the congregation parted ways.
Ours is about $2 million project. It isn’t Southern California. Roof and walls are good.
I think she’s stayed with him this long because she hoped he would propose. There’s no reason now for her to think it won’t take place, so she’ll be giddy until the “next time.” Unngh.
It would seem to me that runoff management on a property that will soon house a new building and all the attendant facilities would be of prime importance in an area such as that.
It will be nice to get updates!
Oh, crikey, I’m cold. I have been for the last few days and I’m also getting very tired. I think the last few months are finally catching up with me. But I’ll “sojer on,” as my nephew said. ;o]
I really like the work FS did in the bathroom today. It now looks like a real bathroom! Mostly. He’s going to put something else in there at the wall end so I can hopefully move the little bookcase that is doubling as a shelf. If I’m going to live here, I want it to be MY place.
Absolutely.
I don’t get why she thinks being married would change anything.
I would ask her but I don’t think she’s in the mood to think about it, just yet. A leopard won’t change its spots. She thinks marriage and buying a home will make all the difference, but it won’t. It will just make trying to get out all the nastier.
Why the proposal came on the heels of her return from the funeral of a family member is beyond me. Unless he saw it as the vulnerable place she was in and decided to capitalize on it. Which is entirely possible.
“he saw it as the vulnerable place she was in and decided to capitalize on it”
Yes, that sounds reasonable. Best wishes to her. I hope she makes a wise decision that has a good outcome.
Asuncion just texted and said her 15-year-old granddaughter tested positive for Covid, so Asuncion won’t be able to come to Mass on Sunday. Asuncion and her husband live with their daughter, son-in-law, and two granddaughters. She and Juan both have some chronic health problems, but they’re vaccinated, so they should still be okay if they get the infection.
I think we all had it again in December. James still sounds like he’s dying of consumption, but I told him that he’s well enough for schoolwork if he’s well enough to play computer games.
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