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.
May your New Year not be like “Soylent Green!”
*tagline*
Happy New Year. You’re welcome!
Kitteh is already bored with the New Year!
Good morning. I hope you slept well, after the evening’s festivities. I think I logged a massive three hours.
Wind, rain, thunderstorms, etc., are scheduled for today and the temperature will drop 50° by tonight. I saw where Happy Valley was given a fresh coat of snow yesterday, so folks are having to dig out. CO got it big time, after the fires. It looked like the snow was pretty wet, as well.
I’ve never been to Hawaii, but it’s beginning to sound inviting.
Happy New Year. Not bad. Maybe there were some fireworks. Vlad stayed up all night playing video games. “I thought you’d think it’s okay,” he said this morning. No, but it’s too late to do anything about it now. Goofball.
Hawai’i has volcanoes.
Yes, but the volcanoes are warm!
Maybe a desert, like Namibia...
I played with the idea of working today but discarded the idea. I DO think I’ll have to take time and wash the cupboard doors. I’ve had open boxes of soda in all of them, but that doesn’t seem to work too well when they’re on the counter, so washing them is the next option. I can’t tell if that’s where the odor is coming from or if it’s this back wall. They’re both going to get done!
Good luck! We have choir this morning.
I took a nap. Now I don’t want to do anything but be a slug.
I plan on a nap after choir.
Rush was a scientific illiterate. Rush had no science at all
The insertion of a life form from space at some time after creation does not refute Genesis.
The event from outer space was after all an act of God
I’m up for the day, now.
Oddity noted: The FReepmail time stamps are all PST while the forum time stamps are current with location. Freaky.
The space-time continuum is in flux, obviously. Better put on your aluminum-foil hat, just to be extra safe.
Where’s Zathras when we could use him?
Yeah, I probably should. Do you remember where I packed that foil hat?
I didn’t have the wit to check the outside temperature before sunrise, but it’s 7° now.
I don’t know where mine is, but it could be second row, second from right. How she got it, I’ll never know.
Happy New Year to you and your family! Not that Zeus will know the difference from one day to the next, but maybe you could give him a treat from me!
The sombrero is my favorite.
Yeah, it has a certain flair to it, doesn’t it? ;o]
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