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.
Not a joke, but extremely accurate depiction of the truth. *ahem*
She is a Pitsky. Half Husky, half Pit. The Husky rounds out the Pit personality, making it less unpredictable, while the Pit rounds out the Husky desire to PULL PULL PULL.
She’s got beautiful blue eyes like a Husky, and she wears eyeliner. LOL
Sounds attractive but challenging. Lots of loooooong walks.
I found Jake napping behind Hogwarts. I’m not sure whether this presages dire weather, or if he wants me to wash his blankets.
I love both breeds, so to me, she’s gorgeous!
Good Morning, stay warm!!
Happy New Year!
Good morning. I haven’t been warm since I left Las Vegas Valley over three years ago, but thanks for the wishes!
Behind Hogwarts, eh? How’s the progress on Diagon Alley? Is that finished?
I have to get things squared away in here before I can start on my little project. I did manage to get a display case for it so that when the thing is assembled, it can be shown and not collect dust. This place is not as “linty” as my last place was, but I have yet to figure out why.
My goodness but it’s cold! I am not a happy person at the moment!
That would be amazing... similar to birds and butterflies knowing how to find their way to places they've never been.
Science fiction always glosses over the problems of communication - when it should be obvious there's a problem... Not one species in OUR world - that we've lived with for millions of years - that we can communicate with.
YOU'RE gorgeous!
Currently -2 here... Good day to stay inside.
We currently have 77 fs in the dining room. Supposed to be 40 tomorrow.
Diagon Alley is coming along slowly.
Why, thank you, sir! I never met a man I didn’t like. Oh. Wait. Yes I did. A couple in fact. Well, maybe three. Make that four. OK, five. Would you believe seven?
*leaving now*
With the wind, it’s 17°. I didn’t like being out in it. I have to write another letter to the manager because if the door isn’t locked, the draft comes through it like a sieve. It’s bad enough to have the gap under the door, but the top and front as well1? The “draft dodger” works well when I’m inside, but I had to pull the throw rug under the door when I left, just to stop the worst of the wind coming in.
It was cold in the building, too!
Great dog! The GF’s little pup watches TV too. If she is watching dogs and they run off screen runs to the window in hopes of seeing them outside.
How cute is that? LOL!
Elen, USMC, used to pull up bird videos on her phone and put the phone down on the floor. Then Shannon would attack the phone.
Jake was just rolling over weirdly on the kitchen floor. I have a feeling Sally dropped meat on the floor while we were at church and didn’t wipe up. She went home in anticipation of weather hitting.
Well. There’s a trick for another day! Enticing a cat with bird videos — how funny!
The weather is eventing here, too. It will be very cold when I go to the laundry room in the morning, but I’m so cold now, that once again I think I’ll never warm up. FS said I’d change my tune, once summer hit, but I never did, in the 30+ years I was in Vegas, and I most certainly didn’t in 3 years in Happy Valley, so I doubt very much that I’ll do it in Dogpatch, USA.
I want to be warm!
The temperature is supposed to drop 50 degrees in the next 18 hours here.
Not surprising considering what we’re having! It’s coming your way!
It was 70 degrees New Year’s Eve, and though it was cooler yesterday, it’s bitter right now. The wind chill puts it at 18°. Dropping... I’m glad I don’t have to be outside, but at the same time, it’s so cold in here that I had to turn on the heater in the bathroom, just to take the chill off.
Of all times for the door to not make a good seal!
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