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New paper: Cambrian explosion driven by viruses from space

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Image result for comet, NASA
Hale-Bopp/NASA

Delivered by comets.

Abstract: We review the salient evidence consistent with or predicted by the Hoyle-Wickramasinghe (H-W) thesis of Cometary (Cosmic) Biology. Much of this physical and biological evidence is multifactorial. One particular focus are the recent studies which date the emergence of the complex retroviruses of vertebrate lines at or just before the Cambrian Explosion of ∼500 Ma. Such viruses are known to be plausibly associated with major evolutionary genomic processes. We believe this coincidence is not fortuitous but is consistent with a key prediction of H-W theory whereby major extinction-diversification evolutionary boundaries coincide with virus-bearing cometary-bolide bombardment events. A second focus is the remarkable evolution of intelligent complexity (Cephalopods) culminating in the emergence of the Octopus. A third focus concerns the micro-organism fossil evidence contained within meteorites as well as the detection in the upper atmosphere of apparent incoming life-bearing particles from space. In our view the totality of the multifactorial data and critical analyses assembled by Fred Hoyle, Chandra Wickramasinghe and their many colleagues since the 1960s leads to a very plausible conclusion – life may have been seeded here on Earth by life-bearing comets as soon as conditions on Earth allowed it to flourish (about or just before 4.1 Billion years ago); and living organisms such as space-resistant and space-hardy bacteria, viruses, more complex eukaryotic cells, fertilised ova and seeds have been continuously delivered ever since to Earth so being one important driver of further terrestrial evolution which has resulted in considerable genetic diversity and which has led to the emergence of mankind. (open access) – Edward J. Steele et al, Cause of Cambrian Explosion – Terrestrial or Cosmic? Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology, Volume 136, August 2018, Pages 3-23
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pbiomolbio.2018.03.004

Well, if viruses came from outer space, did they get started there? If not, where? How?

See also: Worms survive Siberian permafrost for 42,000 years

Might we find evidence of past life on the Moon? It really depends on how long ago life got started here whether some microbial life could have been trapped on the moon and survived a while. The sagas of the worm that survived the space shuttle blowup and the water bears in space should warn against too-hasty dismissal.

Is that Mars lake way too salty for life? Yes, in Hugh Ross’s expert view. The news copy around life on Mars generally sounds as though it is written for people who have an emotional need to believe that there is life on Mars, whether there is or not. Call it a specialized version of the Drake Equation. The last place to look for reasonable skepticism often turns out to be science writing.

But if we don’t find life on either Mars or Europa… … are we justified in drawing the conclusion that life is just not very common in the galaxy and that we are special? As opposed to They Must Be Out There Somewhere, experienced as an act of faith? What makes that act of faith “science”?

and

About the universe, the ID guys were right all along? Science fiction writer Vox Day weighs in on thoughtless dismissal of the idea

Comments
Just kicking the can and a greater claim, or the matter that composes those comets came from here to begin w/ (thousands not mythical millions or billions of YA), see RCCF framework for understanding science and SPIRAL's SNAP and 'Draw Play' hypotheses.Pearlman
August 8, 2018
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Cmow @4 "... like a last-ditch and exasperated attempt..." to save neo-Darwinism. Ha! Great quote of the reviewer following up on ScuzzaMan's "desperation" comment. As if neo-Darwinism has not fallen off the rails now for quite some time by anyone awake reading the literature. Amazing how they still try to hide or gloss over it's failure. But then, everyone knows we are merely fish food for the Great "Spaghetti Monster." It's tentacles all the way down. ;-) The great Octopus in the sky brought to us on high from a comet, lol. How ironic the way this is playing out now among those who would be careful to uphold neo-Darwinism.
We believe this coincidence is not fortuitous but is consistent with a key prediction of H-W theory whereby major extinction-diversification evolutionary boundaries coincide with virus-bearing cometary-bolide bombardment events. A second focus is the remarkable evolution of intelligent complexity (Cephalopods) culminating in the emergence of the Octopus.(The Spaghetti Monster is born) A third focus concerns the micro-organism fossil evidence contained within meteorites as well as the detection in the upper atmosphere of apparent incoming life-bearing particles from space.
They have their own religion and strict doctrine which they dare not change, just the arrival of their own personal savior - the Octopus on a magic comet ride. It came from the sky with tentacles. The Great Spaghetti Monster exist!DATCG
August 7, 2018
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ScuzzaMan@2, Regarding desperation -- from the Introductory Remarks of the linked paper:
We certainly do not want this paper to read, as one reviewer has put it … “ somewhat like a last-ditch and exasperated attempt to convince the main stream of the scientific community that in following neo-Darwinism they have gone seriously astray, because life has been carried to this planet from elsewhere in the universe on comets/meteorites and does not result from abiogenesis on Earth.”
They go on to affirm neo-Darwinism, but merely to encourage a more 'Cosmic' paradigm. Like the Octopus -- whose evolutionary path was surely not bound to earth. Sigh.cmow
August 7, 2018
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Shout out to the Octopus, the shape-shifting, color-changing, ink-shooting, venom-spitting, tool-using, camera-eyed, big-brained, large-genomed, evolution-busting, Fibonacci-numbered wonder of God's creation. It's so advanced it must be from outer space. How else to explain this advanced animal?
Thus the possibility that cryopreserved Squid and/or Octopus eggs, arrived in icy bolides several hundred million years ago should not be discounted as that would be a parsimonious cosmic explanation for the Octopus' sudden emergence on Earth ca. 270 million years ago.
cmow
August 7, 2018
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Hang on a second. The Oort Cloud was invented (in spite of the absence of any evidence; there's a pattern) to explain the persistence of the comets in a 4 to 5 billion year old solar system. Plainly life didn't originate there. The null hypothesis is that the remnants of microorganisms found in comet debris, assuming they're not artifacts of contamination, came from Earth at the same time the comet itself came from Earth. As per vmahuna above, the odds against a comet getting banged off another planet where life originated and carrying that life in tact across the void to just the right planet to sustain it are BY DEFINITION even worse than the odds against abiogenesis here or there. How do you "solve" the problem of the vast improbability of any of the evolution narrative by multiplying the improbabilities? This just reeks of intellectual and philosophical desperation.ScuzzaMan
August 7, 2018
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OK, so as part of a well managed Pan-Spermia campaign, which ONLY targeted Earth, the Designers chose to use a carefully manufactured meteorite to deposit Active Agent #427 into a carefully selected and fully vetted tidal pool. The Mother Earth team then spent the next 500 million years making sure that the pond scum successfully stepped through 97 distinct milestones on the Life Development Critical Path. But we're clearly arguing about METHODS of Implementation of Intelligent Design. Only an imbecile would argue that both the carefully targeted Initial Package and the subsequent statistically improbably Growth and Maturity Pathway were random, haphazard events.vmahuna
August 6, 2018
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