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.
The WSJ is really pushing Wordle, so someone’s making a ton of money off it, and it’s not you.
I do the WSJ crossword online most days. Sometimes Vlad helps, if he’s up.
I’m done cleaning the stove. Someone walked into the kitchen and looked put-out, but oh, well. The person could have been up earlier and gotten breakfast underway before I decided to clean the stove.
https://www.powerlanguage.co.uk/wordle/
You guess a 5 letter word. They color each letter: gray if it’s not in the word, yellow if it’s in the word but not in that position, and green if it’s in the right place.
You get 6 tries to guess the word.
There aren’t any ads. And it doesn’t seem to know my Google log-in from one device to another. So I don’t know how someone can be making money off it.
We had a game like that that was a little book from The Book Lady with scratch-off blocks.
If the WSJ is pushing it, there’s money.
Crikey. Got it in three.
There’s got to be some money to be made somewhere. I mean, these days, if it’s fun, it will cost you to play it.
Now I really need to get after that letter.
BRB!
They actual make the games 'mismatched' on purpose as a way to reward the teams that did the best during the regular season, by the seeding process.
This year, the team with the best regular season record in each conference earned a 'bye' for last weekend and stayed home to rest. The other 6 playoff teams in each conference got matched up in pairs (2-7, 3-6, 4-5) to give a bit of an advantage to the higher seeded teams (which also got to play the game at their home stadium).
That is downright awful, hope that you don’t need to be on that road very often...
Ugh, hopefully it was just a clerical error that they can take care of, quickly...
Mid-week once again, here in a flash... I'm sensing a pattern...
We have a Wednesday every week where I live, too.
No, it wasn’t a clerical error, sadly, and they won’t take care of it until I go back in for another appointment. That isn’t going to happen because I was treated so shabbily on my first visit. I got the names of four other doctors and filed a grievance against my current one.
I’ll take care of it by having someone else take care of it!
:o])
Ahh, but the pattern that I am sensing is that it comes in a flash...
I see. I was feeling like it was Thursday already.
Sounds like you are taking the right approach.
Isn’t that amazing? We have Wednesday here, too, and I bet it falls on the same day as your Wednesday does!
I was going to take the letter to the rent drop in the office, and as I opened the door, there stood the manager with a tall, young man in tow. Seems he’s going to be our new maintenance man.
He looks competent and seems to know what he’s doing. Or is supposed to be doing. All I can do is hope he lives long and prospers.
FS sent me a text saying he needs to come by and pick up the title. I may go with him, breaking a long-standing personal rule of mine — I may not be here for the inspection.
You gotta do what you gotta do.
We ordered a birthday cake for James and his hair from Nothing Bundt Cakes and will pick it up at 1:30 p.m. in conjunction with a trip to the library.
Off to my next effort, probably laundry.
Bravo. It took me 4. I can’t believe I thought of my last two tries in the order I did as my #3 was a much less common word. But that’s how this game goes.
I don’t usually drive it. But I drive past the “upcoming exit” signs on I-81.
I’ve always wondered why Star Trek only used “Live Long and Prosper.” What about the other combinations?
\/// Die early and poor
\\// Live long and prosper
\\\/ Die early and prosper
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