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 stories about octopuses being superintelligent are fraudulent lies spread by superintelligent octopi ...
Yes, I understand. If it was me in the situation, I would use stronger language.
Or maybe I enjoyed the weather and survived the long weekend.
Good luck going off the grid. The last stand for not putting this particular 666 on your forehead will be making your own biodiesel.
Hm. And all this time when you talked about PCs I thought you were talking about computers.
She should be, but as you say, it won’t happen...
So which was it? Come clean...
I enjoyed the weekend and mostly avoided the weather.
I did spend some time wondering why NFL wildcard games can’t have more evenly matched teams. But I’m sure there’s a reason. I don’t usually pay much attention to football. But my F-i-L likes it.
I don’t remember if I told you that when I took a short road trip over the new-year’s weekend it took me through Scranton, PA. The Central Scranton Expressway (CSE) has been renamed to the Joe Biden Expressway.
It’s really hard to drive and fight the urge to throw up.
Well, this day just keeps getting better and better.
I got a notice from my health insurance company listing the medications and what amounts were paid by the different parties and there was a comment that something was denied me because I was a “smokeless tobacco user.” How that ever got into my medical records, I’ll never know. I quit smoking in 1980 and have never EVER used smokeless tobacco (or “chaw” as we called it as kids, when we’d see someone spit a mess of it) and come to find out, it was from the clinic I first visited here.
Why it was put in is a mystery to me, but they won’t remove it until I go back in. Which is not going to happen if I can help it.
Meantime, I’m on the phone with my health insurance company and I’m filing a grievance about this. I’m not about to be denied health services because someone doesn’t like me.
I’ve also gotten the names of other providers in the area, so I won’t be going back to the previous clinic. Enough of this!!
Why do I have to fight so stinking much?
Ohno. I’m so sorry, ArGee! I hope they get to eat their words, soon.
Nah. Going off the grid isn’t going to happen for me. I’ll be gone “off the grid” permanently before I can do it physically, but perhaps those who are in my line of descendancy will have better luck at it than I would. They’ll have more info about it, and more help. I’m pretty much at the mercy of everyone who owns a piece of me.
Good grief!
That’s not exactly what I was thinking, but it will do for now.
I need to put this in my journal, for sure.
That’s a sweet face to greet a person this Wednesday.
Good morning.
Did you have a good night without cats on your pillow?
The list of things to be done just keeps getting longer. And now, they want my power bill. Hmm. I wonder what they’ll do with it? I can apply for energy assistance without them. Things are strange here. Some good, some not so good.
Now, though, it’s time for me to shower and wash some of this stuff out of my head. Some days, I think it will never leave but will rattle around like a marble in a garbage can forever.
Good luck with the shower. No Jake last night, and no disruptions from the other person that I recall.
I’m going to clean the stove now.
Good morning. Happy Humph Day!
My wife and daughter have me playing Wordle every morning. It’s not a bad mind starter, but now they are having philosophical text conversations that include me before 7:30 am. That’s my “peace” time. Maybe I’ll suggest they start after 7:30.
Good morning!
Not sure I’d want my “peace” time interrupted, either, but I’ve always needed a few minutes before my work day to get my head together, so I understand completely. Good luck with it, at any rate!
I’ve never heard of Wordle, but I could check it out.
The shower was better than most. I’ve started to shut the water off after a few minutes, then turn it back on for a few minutes and that seems to give it the extra boost I need so it’s still hot when I need more hot water on my lower back.
I have a letter to draft to the manager and then I’ll try to start my day. I don’t know if anything will come of it, but I have nothing to lose.
Without the threshold, there is an awful lot of sandy dirt that comes in, and there was quite a pile of it when I swept the floors last night. What a mess. Maybe I’ll be able to start on the last of the unpacking in the coming week. It would be nice to have some room....
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