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.
I found this one hard to think of, even when I had 3 letters and 2 in the right place.
If I had to guess I’d say your strategy is “guessing.”
Maybe I should try that one.
My late maternal grandfather was a blacksmith. He made Master Craftsman.
He worked at a theme park in Missouri showing how smithing was done in the late 1800s.
IIRC, Del Rio is almost due west of San Antonio.
Across desert.
Not anywhere near “master” at anything at this point. My welds stick and my backyard repairs tend to stay fixed...
Somehow, I can’t think of you without thinking of the forge as well, after you went through so much to build it.
I’m glad it’s still there!
Yeah, it doesn’t take much to get discouraged. Whoda thunk a 5-letter word could be so difficult?
I had two letters the first try but couldn’t get them to fall into place. WORSE than Tetris ever thought of being!!
Yes, right on the Rio Grande. Not like the deserts I was used to, but yes, what passes for desert in Texas.
I liked it there. I just had a hard time getting around because there were no sidewalks, and I had no vehicle.
He used to do a welding demonstration. He’d heat and cut off a piece of an iron rod he used and bend it into the shape of a chain link. He’d add it to his chain and then really heat the points that were supposed to weld together (after shaping them). He’d have a mix of something, I think it was sand and borax and something else, pull that link out of the fire and hammer it together, finishing the shape of the link. After a short time he’d put the entire thing in water to harden the weld. Then he’d pull it out and hammer as hard as he could on the link.
Most of the time it held. Sometimes the crowd would see a “too bad, that one failed” moment. It was something to watch.
Well, the Saga Of The Door continues.
Poor Malcom, in trying to correct his predecessor’s mistakes, realized the door was a “Left-Hand” door, that management wanted him to make fit into a right-hand door frame. He was being dutiful and wanted his paycheck so he tried to make it fit. Until I went out and told him it was never going to work, and it would probably go against the fire codes if he did. So management is just going to have to buckle down and spring for the right-hand door.
The manager, of course, being young and new and not realizing that doors are pre-made for specific frames, had no clue that the door was never going to fit because she didn’t know there was a right- and a left-hand to the frame. The previous maintenance man, for whatever reason, couldn’t figure out what the problem was, even after two days of working all day, each day on it.
The door sweep won’t go on because the inner door seems to be a composite which is on a frame of steel, and poor Malcom couldn’t attach the sweep with screws. He was feeling like the day was a total loss, so I told him it wasn’t, because he learned something new. He learned that left-hand doors will never fit into right hand frames, and that sticky door sweeps are often better than those that are attached with screws. A day is never a waste if we have learned something new.
I hope he feels better about himself, now. I told him when he talked to his inner self to do it with kindness. Now, maybe I can get back to watching the movie I started two hours ago and am not even half-way through it: “Contagion.”
Left- and right-handed door frames. I didn’t know. I thought doors was doors. I hope Malcolm bucks up!
Borax and iron filings most likely. Borax vaporizes and keeps oxygen from getting the the weld. Iron acts as a filler.
In theory, I know how to do forge welding... Just haven’t had to. My wire feed welder has done everything I need it to do so far. I did pick up a jar of Borax/iron mix to keep around just in case.
I know the Guild of Metalsmiths up here are the local ABANA chapter and do some of the local threshing/County/whatever type shows. Haven’t been active in the Guild for the last 4-5 years.
Weird... You can’t order a pre-hung, or at least pre-drilled/routed door without specifying left or right hand open.
Reminds me of a Bob Newhart Show episode where his wife had bought him a set of golf clubs as a surprise. They were on sale.
They were left handed clubs.
“I don’t see how there can be a difference!”
I would never have known that.
Yeah, it used to be doors could be “made” to fit by adjusting the side edges as well as the top and bottom. Sort of “assembly after it’s been pre-packaged” by the manufacturer. Now they sell the doors and frames but one has to specify if it’s a right- or left-hand. Unlike refrigerators, they aren’t interchangeable doors.
Malcom will be OK. He’s young and trying to do something with his life by working for a temporary company. I don’t know about the laws here, but I do know that if you work as a temp in CA, you can’t be hired as permanent for that same company. I
However, in NV, I worked as a temp for the county for six months before I was hired permanently.
Anyway, he’s only been on the job for two weeks, and there’s a lot he doesn’t know. He’s learning and that’s the main thing. I have my own ideas about him, but it will be a while before I find out any more about him.
Yeah. My dad made the screen doors for our house, out of wood. Nice secure fit between the frames and nice tight screen. Of course, all we needed then was a hook and eye closure on the inside. Today we need a security system. I leave my porchlight on so that’s some deterrent. But then, I’m more used to city life than life here in Dog Patch.
Yeah, well, she may have been thinking about setting the table...
Again!
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