Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

A Weird Paper Tests The Limits of Science by Claiming Octopuses Came From Space
https://www.sciencealert.com ^ | 28 DECEMBER 2021 | MIKE MCRAE

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.


TOPICS: Astronomy; History; Outdoors; Pets/Animals; Science; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: abiogenesis; astronomy; cephalopods; crevo; cryptobiology; edwardsteele; fredhoyle; fringe; godsgravesglyphs; ohsomysteriouso; panspermia; science; scientism; sirfredhoyle; wickramasinghe; xplanets
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 4,201-4,2204,221-4,2404,241-4,2604,261-4,263 next last
To: HKMk23

Yeah.
That’s a “tazer the child” moment if ever there was one.
(And yes, the idiot is indeed a child.)


4,221 posted on 05/02/2022 4:48:40 PM PDT by Darksheare (Those who support liberal "Republicans" summarily support every action by same. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4213 | View Replies]

To: null and void

The tendency is that, at some point, a developing mind will have more information than restraint. This is why we used to let kids do dumb stuff when they were little and the dumb stuff was (mostly) minor enough they could be stupid, get hurt, and learn restraint, and forethought by experience, ‘cuz — God knows — they won’t give it credibility coming from Mom and Dad unless they have some battle scars that testify in the parent’s favor.


4,222 posted on 05/03/2022 1:51:07 AM PDT by HKMk23 (https://youtu.be/LTseTg48568)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4214 | View Replies]

To: ArGee

I guessed this 5-letter word in 6 maddening tries.

⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
⬛🟩🟩🟩🟩
⬛🟩🟩🟩🟩
⬛🟩🟩🟩🟩
⬛🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩


4,223 posted on 05/03/2022 1:59:31 AM PDT by HKMk23 (https://youtu.be/LTseTg48568)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4200 | View Replies]

To: Monkey Face; dakine; GOPJ; fanfan; ColdOne; Cyber Liberty; null and void; Tax-chick; Anoreth; ...

4,224 posted on 05/03/2022 3:18:51 AM PDT by Tax-chick (Nature, art, silence, simplicity, peace. And fungi.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4198 | View Replies]

To: Tax-chick

Pretty cat...


4,225 posted on 05/03/2022 3:21:21 AM PDT by dakine
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4224 | View Replies]

To: dakine

Thank you. I hope you have a good day today.


4,226 posted on 05/03/2022 3:49:28 AM PDT by Tax-chick (Nature, art, silence, simplicity, peace. And fungi.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4225 | View Replies]

To: Tax-chick

Look at that! One blue eye and one green!! What a beauty!

Good morning. Did you sleep well after your Day Camp Experience?

I have to walk to Kroger. In the rain. Because. But I have things to do here, first, so with luck I’ll leave around 0800. Unngh..


4,227 posted on 05/03/2022 3:56:37 AM PDT by Monkey Face (We grow in faith only if we wait patiently for God's purposes and patterns to unfold in our lives.NM)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4224 | View Replies]

To: Monkey Face

Not bad, thanks. My foot hurts after 14 hours in my hiking boots. I wasn’t needed for wilderness camp yesterday, but maybe I will be today, so I need to be prepared.

Good luck on your trip to Kroger!


4,228 posted on 05/03/2022 4:03:23 AM PDT by Tax-chick (Nature, art, silence, simplicity, peace. And fungi.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4227 | View Replies]

To: Darksheare
Saw this, thought of you, don't know why...


4,229 posted on 05/03/2022 4:25:02 AM PDT by null and void (Russia no longer looks like the #2 military power in the world. Maybe #2 military power in Ukraine)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4228 | View Replies]

To: Tax-chick; Monkey Face; NicknamedBob; null and void; no-to-illegals; Silentgypsy; ColdOne; ...

Good morning. Happy Twosday.

I’ll be off around 9 to take the car to the body shop to look at a dent and scratch someone put in the right fender. I was supposed to go Friday before the surprise trip to NYC. This will just be for the estimate so we can decide whether to use insurance or not.

A little better Wordling today.

Wordle 318 4/6

⬜🟨🟩⬜⬜
⬜🟩🟩⬜🟨
🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩


4,230 posted on 05/03/2022 4:32:38 AM PDT by ArGee (Well, this year's a bust. I guess I need to start hoping for a good 2023.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4224 | View Replies]

To: ArGee

Wordle 318 5/6

⬜⬜🟩🟨⬜
⬜⬜🟩🟩🟩
⬜⬜🟩🟩🟩
⬜⬜🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩


4,231 posted on 05/03/2022 4:40:49 AM PDT by null and void (Russia no longer looks like the #2 military power in the world. Maybe #2 military power in Ukraine)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4230 | View Replies]

To: null and void

Good one.


4,232 posted on 05/03/2022 4:46:54 AM PDT by Tax-chick (Nature, art, silence, simplicity, peace. And fungi.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4229 | View Replies]

To: ArGee; Tax-chick; Monkey Face; Allegra; null and void; Silentgypsy

Good Morning!

Hoping that the weather and most else is fine by you today...

Geez, I am going in the wrong direction... (i.e., NOT in The Zone!! lol)

Wordle 318 5/6

⬛⬛🟨🟩⬛
⬛🟩⬛🟩🟩
⬛🟩🟩🟩🟩
⬛🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩


4,233 posted on 05/03/2022 5:32:12 AM PDT by zzeeman ("We can evade reality, but we cannot evade the consequences of evading reality." )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4230 | View Replies]

To: zzeeman; ArGee; Allegra; null and void; Tax-chick

While I was otherwise occupied, this happened:

Wordle 318 5/6

🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
⬜🟩⬜🟨⬜
🟩🟩⬜⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩


4,234 posted on 05/03/2022 5:36:20 AM PDT by Monkey Face (We grow in faith only if we wait patiently for God's purposes and patterns to unfold in our lives.NM)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4233 | View Replies]

To: null and void

Disturbing....


4,235 posted on 05/03/2022 7:05:30 AM PDT by Monkey Face (We grow in faith only if we wait patiently for God's purposes and patterns to unfold in our lives.NM)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4229 | View Replies]

To: Monkey Face; zzeeman; ArGee

Happy Tuesday! Much better today!

Wordle 318 3/6

🟨🟨🟩⬜⬜
⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

ArGee, is NYC back to its pre-Covid bustle or is it still a little scaled down? I used to love visiting my sister there, but that was before it became so fascist.


4,236 posted on 05/03/2022 7:17:21 AM PDT by Allegra
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4234 | View Replies]

To: HKMk23

Been there, done that. Lost a couple of clients because of it.


4,237 posted on 05/03/2022 7:26:19 AM PDT by Dead Corpse (A Psalm in napalm...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4213 | View Replies]

To: Allegra

It’s still somewhat scaled down, although I didn’t spend much time wandering around. The subway was far less crowded than I’m used to.

And people wear masks a lot. I don’t see any of that upstate here.


4,238 posted on 05/03/2022 7:36:33 AM PDT by ArGee (Well, this year's a bust. I guess I need to start hoping for a good 2023.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4236 | View Replies]

To: ArGee; Dead Corpse; Allegra

Mostly people wear masks to the doctor, here, but there are those that are so indoctrinated that they don’t dare take them off walking or driving alone. Really weird!

In Utah, the only people who wore the masks without being mandated (gov. officials, medical offices, etc.,) were Liberals and everyone else complained when they had to!

Here, I think it’s just that they don’t really consider where they are. Poor sheeple.


4,239 posted on 05/03/2022 8:24:56 AM PDT by Monkey Face (We grow in faith only if we wait patiently for God's purposes and patterns to unfold in our lives.NM)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4238 | View Replies]

To: Monkey Face

*tagline*


4,240 posted on 05/03/2022 10:24:05 AM PDT by Monkey Face (Just because today is a terrible day it doesn't mean tomorrow won't be the best day of your life. FB)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4239 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 4,201-4,2204,221-4,2404,241-4,2604,261-4,263 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson