Scientists: Virus May Give Link to Life

Science - AP ^ | 2004-05-12

[Junior]

Un autre ping.

[NCjim]

help to understand a common ancestor that scientists believe was present before life split into forms such as bacteria, heat-loving organisms and the building blocks that led to plants and animals

This is great! I have only been able so far to trace my ancestors back to Adam and Eve. Now I can go back ever so much further...

[RightWhale]

life split into forms such as bacteria, heat-loving organisms and the building blocks

The word may appears in the headline. Each time the word may appears in a headline we may assume that the article is total speculation. The use of the word may ought to mean permit, but meaning is selling at a discount these days.

[talleyman]

Scientists ... say they have discovered a heat-loving, acid-dwelling virus...

They've temporarily named it "the Timothy Leary virus"...

[LiteKeeper]

YEC INTREP

[PatrickHenry]

PING. [This list is for the evolution side of evolution threads, and some other science topics like cosmology. FReepmail me to be added or dropped. Long-time list members get all pings, but can request evo-only status. New additions will be evo-only, but can request all pings. Specify all pings or you'll get evo-pings only.]

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[Ichneumon]

The word may appears in the headline. Each time the word may appears in a headline we may assume that the article is total speculation.

*You* may "assume" that, but most of the rest of us understand that "may" in a scientific context most certainly is *not* synonymous with "total speculation".

If believing so helps you emotionally cope with all these kinds of discoveries, though, may it bring you some kind of inner peace, while the rest of us follow the evidence where it leads.

[Ichneumon]

This is great! I have only been able so far to trace my ancestors back to Adam and Eve. Now I can go back ever so much further...

You could have gone back "ever so much farther" even before this current article. For example, you could have traced your ancestry back to other great apes and old world monkeys via: Evolution of the primate lineage leading to modern humans: Phylogenetic and demographic inferences from DNA sequences, published in 1997, or Constructing primate phylogenies from ancient retrovirus sequences (1999), or any of the hundreds of other similar studies.

Or you could have traced your ancestry back to the common ancestor of all placental mammals via: ERV-L Elements: a Family of Endogenous Retrovirus-Like Elements Active throughout the Evolution of Mammals (1999).

Or even all vertebrates (including fish and amphibians) via: Vertebrate genome sequencing: building a backbone for comparative genomics (2002).

[RightWhale]

Scientists do not use the word may. It either is or isn't with a +- error. No maybe. The tech writer or journalist is not a scientist.

[Doctor Stochastic]

"This is something that was predicted but hadn't been shown before," Rice said.

That is predicted from evolutionary theory, not from ID-Creationism.

[Junior]

We'll note this the next time creationists claim evolution isn't a real theory because it doesn't make predictions. Of course, they usually change the subject as soon as they are shown the error of their ways...

[Ichneumon]

Scientists do not use the word may. It either is or isn't with a +- error. No maybe.

Balderdash.

Titles of papers from just a single scientific journal (The Journal of Molecular Evolution) over the past few years:

Characterization of Species-Specifically Amplified SINEs in Three Salmonid Species—Chum Salmon, Pink Salmon, and Kokanee: The Local Environment of the Genome May Be Important for the Generation of a Dominant Source Gene at a Newly Retroposed Locus

Compositional Bias May Affect Both DNA-Based and Protein-Based Phylogenetic Reconstructions

The Appearance of a Different DNA Sequence May Decrease Nucleotide Diversity

Gene Conversions May Obscure Actin Gene Family Relationships

A Common Structural Motif in Elongation Factor Ts and Ribosomal Protein L7/12 May Be Involved in the Interaction with Elongation Factor Tu

Actin and Flagellin May Have an N-Terminal Relationship

Epigenetic Silencing May Aid Evolution by Gene Duplication

The word "may" most certainly *is* used by scientists, and it has a clear meaning in that context, something along the lines of "there is evidence to indicate this, and thus it should be kept in mind when studying relevant phenomenon, but further work needs to be done to more firmly establish the relationship and determine its scope".

It most certainly does *not* mean, as you claim, that "the article is total speculation". On the contrary, it means that there is evidence pointing towards the truth of the proposition, albeit not entirely conclusively.

[RightWhale]

Such imprecision of thought is exactly where literalists begin to pick at the foundations of science. There aren't many scientists. There are many with academic credentials who claim to be doing science. A may adds nothing to science, but it certainly adds to research revenues.

[Dimensio]

Of course, they usually change the subject as soon as they are shown the error of their ways...

Nah. They just deny that it was ever a prediction of evolution until after it was discovered. They're tricky like that.

[Michael_Michaelangelo]

Do you ever question anything you read or link to?
You do know of the problems associated with ML-Based methods, right? Have those researchers sit with some paleos and/or biologists sometime to discuss the data.
They would probably drive each other nuts.
It's well-documented that morphological and genetic lineages aren't compatible. Some animals just don't fit the model (lungfishes and tetrapods, for example).

http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/0400609101v1

[Nataku X]

Original data or research is required for scientific peer publication. PERIOD.

[malakhi]

Yellowstone is relatively young, geologically speaking. Is there any particular reason to believe that these viruses are relics from 3 billion years ago, vs. having evolved to their environment in the last X number of millions of years?

[RightWhale]

PERIOD? Really?