Can The Theory Be Tested?
Each subtopic is followed by updates; general ones come last
Also see Testing Darwinism versus Cosmic Ancestry
Also see What'sNEW in Cosmic Ancestry

Comet Rendezvous

Rosetta

On March 14, 1986, a European spacecraft named Giotto flew within 600 kilometers of Halley's comet. Two Russian Vega explorers and three other spacecraft also flew by and observed Halley at that time. All of the spacecraft encountered unexpected organic material, sometimes forming a coating on silicate grains, sometimes as naked dust. The material is named CHON, for carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, the four main elements in life. CHON is apparently a principal component of the organic dust in the cometary atmosphere of Halley

Aerogel with captured particle at top, entry hole at bottom of narrow cone

Now NASA has decided to launch the Stardust mission in 1999 (5.5). In 2004, this explorer will approach within 100 kilometers of comet Wild-2 at a flyby speed of 6 kilometers per second. There it will catch in a soft gel (left) tens of thousands of dust particles for return to Earth by parachute in the Utah desert in January, 2006 (6).

The European Space Agency is also planning a comet rendezvous mission called Rosetta, to be launched in the year 2003. Originally this mission was intended to retrieve a core sample from a comet. Later, Rosetta was scaled back to a year-long rendezvous with comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 3. Now the plan, changed again, is for Rosetta to rendezvous with the comet Wirtanen on August 25, 2011, and fly alongside that comet for two years as it approaches the sun. After the first year it will send a lander named Champollion to the comet's surface to transmit data for 84 hours back to Earth via Rosetta. But trouble plagues this mission. On June 4, 1996, 37 seconds into its maiden flight from French Guyana, the Ariane 5 rocket swerved sharply and exploded; the same kind of rocket is scheduled carry Rosetta. And funding for some important aspects of the mission is still not complete (7). In September, 1996, NASA withdrew as a partner in the development of Champollion (7.5). This mission is still uncertain. Let's hope at least one of these missions to a comet is successful. Then, let's study the results closely.

– Comet Rendezvous           (Also see Comets: What'sNEW)

02 Jul 2023: DMS on 67/P.
"...first look at [Bennu] asteroid dust ...offers surprises," by Alexandra Witze, Nature, 12 Dec 2023.
"Life's Building Blocks Abound in Asteroid Dust Ferried to Earth," by Alexandra Witze, p 439-440, Nature [pdf], 19 Oct 2023. Samples of asteroid Bennu ...contain carbon and water.
"NASA spacecraft delivering biggest sample yet from an asteroid," by Marcia Dunn, Phys.Org, 20 Sep 2023.
24 Feb 2023: The Ryugu samples contain thousands of different types of organic molecules, including amino acids.
10 Jun 2022: JAXA says Asteroid Ryugu contains "protein-forming" amino acids.
...spacecraft's chaotic landing reveals comet's softness by Elizabeth Gibney, Nature, 28 Oct 2020.
09 Oct 2020: OSIRIS-REx will gather samples from the surface of asteroid Bennu.
14 Jul 2020: The asteroid Ryugu appears rich in organics.
Hayabusa 2 Leaves Asteroid Ryugu and Heads Home by David Dickinson, Sky & Telescope, 15 Nov 2019.
Japanese spacecraft probes asteroid's guts for first time, Nature News, 10 Jul 2019.
Can We Catch the Next 'Oumuamua? by Paul Gilster, Centauri Dreams, 20 Jun 2019.
15 Dec 2018: Weather on a Comet? A brief movie seems to show a blizzard....
...Japan's Two Hopping Rovers Successfully Land on Asteroid Ryugu by Meghan Bartels, Space.com, 22 Sep 2018.
11 May 2017: The oxygen produced on comet 67P prompts a new theory from a chemical engineer.
24 Mar 2017: Rosetta saw a landslide on comet 67P that occurred in July 2015.
Mission Complete: Rosetta's journey ends in a daring descent to the comet, ESA, 30 Sep 2016.
High-molecular-weight organic matter in the particles of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, by Nicolas Fray, Anaïs Bardyn et al., doi:10.1038/nature19320, Nature, online 07 Sep 2016; and commentary: Rosetta Finds Solid Organic Matter in Dust Particles from 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, Sci-News.com, 08 Sep 2016.
Photos reveal location of lost comet lander Philae by Elizabeth Gibney, Nature News, 06 Sep 2016.
Evidence That Comets Brought Life to Earth... by Courtney Hilden, The Mary Sue, 29 Jun 2016.
Comet 67P atmosphere contains chemicals of life, Rosetta mission finds by Nicola Davis, The Guardian, 27 May 2016.
Rosetta's Comet Contains Ingredients for Life, ESA (+Astrobiology), 27 May 2016.
20 Apr 2016: ...A strong argument for the presence of CH4 and C2H6 clathrates in the nucleus of 67P.
Exposed water ice on the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, by G. Filacchione, M. C. De Sanctis and F. Capaccioni, doi:10.1038/nature16190, Nature, online 13 Jan 2016.
A Sudden Jet on Comet 67P, Astronomy Picture of the Day, 18 Nov 2015.
Three things Rosetta taught us +3 we don't know about Comet 67P: c. 5 min. video, Nature.com, 18 Nov 2015.
The Rosetta Mission Asks: Did Comets Bring Life to Earth? YouTube video posted by NASA JPL, 5 Nov 2015.
29 Oct 2015: Mainstream science cannot explain the abundant O2 in the atmosphere of comet 67P.
M. C. De Sanctis et al., "The diurnal cycle of water ice on comet 67P...," doi:10.1038/nature14869, Nature, online 24 Sep 2015.
A dramatic outburst from Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, Rosetta Blog, photographed 22 Aug 2015.
The organic comet, 3-minute video from ESA on YouTube, published 11 Aug 2015.
4 Aug 2015: More links about organics on Comet 67P
9 Jul 2015: Richard Hoover reinforces the claim that life may exist on Comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
Philae comet could be home to alien life... by Rebecca Ratcliffe, The Guardian, 5 Jul 2015.
14-19 Jun 2015: Rosetta's lander Philae wakes up from hibernation.
17 May 2015: Comet 67P as seen from ESA's Rosetta spacecraft at a distance 19.9 km, on 28 Mar 2015.
OSIRIS Catches The Wake-Up of a Dust Jet, ESA / JPL, photos taken 12 Mar 2015.
14 Apr 2015: Philae came to rest almost two hours after touchdown, 12 Nov 2014.
13 Mar 2015: Open Access paper by Wickramasinghe et al. in Astrobiol Outreach, online 9 Feb 2015.
23-25 Jan 2015: News and close-up pictures from Science about comet 67P
4 Dec 2014: Images and data from comet-rendezvous missions reveal features consistent with cometary panspermia.
11-19 Nov 2014: Rosetta / Philae lander / comet 67P updates.
17 Oct 2014: Comet Siding Spring will pass close to Mars on Sunday, 19 Oct.
GIADA "touches" the comet! by Alessandra Rotundi, ESA, 13 Aug 2014.
6-12 Aug 2014: Rosetta updates.
6 Jun 2014: A 4-minute video, "...Rosetta Comet Comes Alive."
Comet begins to steam off as Rosetta homes in by Elizabeth Gibney, Nature News, 15 May 2014.
Empa technology aboard the Rosetta space probe, Empa Switzerland (+Newswise), 7 May 2014.
20 Jan 2014: Rosetta awakens!
Comet craft ready to wake by Elizabeth Gibney, Nature News, 15 Jan 2014.
19 Jul 2011: A NASA mission to retrieve a surface sample from an asteroid is scheduled for launch in 2016.
Video: Rosetta Probe Gets First Glimpse of Its Ultimate Target by Sid Perkins, ScienceNow, 8 Jun 2011.
NASA to Launch New Science Mission to Asteroid in 2016, NASA, 25 May 2011; and commentary:
NASA Osiris: Looking for life with the god of death by Maggie Koerth-Baker, BoingBoing.net, 9 Jun 2011.
5 Apr 2011: Comet Wild-2 was once wet.
Stardust's final act helps other NASA missions, Nature.com, 25 Mar 2011.
Spacecraft Successfully Returns Asteroid Dust by Dennis Normile, ScienceNow, 16 Nov 2010.
Adam Mann, "Glimpsing a comet's heart" [html], doi:10.1038/4671013a, p1013-1014 v467, Nature, online 26 Oct 2010.
14 Jul 2010: The ESA space probe Rosetta flew past the Lutetia planetoid at around 6 p.m. CEST on Saturday.
Small particles found in the sample container of the HAYABUSA, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), 6 Jul 2010.
Rosetta's blind date with asteroid Lutetia, European Space Agency, 15 Jun 2010.
Japan celebrates asteroid round trip success by Mark Peplow, Nature.com, 14 Jun 2010.
Asteroid probe begins return from rendezvous by David Cyranoski, doi:10.1038/news.2010.291, NatureNews, 10 Jun 2010.
Pushkar Ganesh Vaidya, "Stardust findings. Implications for panspermia" [arXiv:0903.4951v1 abstract], p225-228 v16 n2, Apeiron (Montreal), April 2009.
Rosetta will swing by Earth, ESA, 4 Nov 2009.
18 Aug 2009: NASA scientists have discovered glycine... in samples of comet Wild 2.
Stardust comet dust resembles asteroid materials, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 24 Jan 2008.
Proposed Mission Will Return Sample From Near-Earth Object, SpaceDaily.com, 11 Mar 2007.
Joanne Baker, "Look into the Seeds of Time" [summary], 10.1126/science.314.5806.1707, p 1707: introducing a Special Section on Stardust (nine articles), p 1707-1739 v 314, Science, 15 Dec 2006.
13 Mar 2006: Fire and ice — the first examined particles returned from comet Wild 2 by NASA's Stardust mission.
Stardust Status Report (see photo at right), 25 Jan 2006.
Ichiko Fuyuno, "A shot in the dark," p 132-133 v 432, Nature, 12 Jan 2006. "Japan's mission to collect a sample from a distant asteroid looks to have ended in failure."
15 Jan 2006: Stardust landed safely.
Hayabusa ready to head home with asteroid sample: Concern over engine damage mars celebrations, by Ichiko Fuyuno, News@Nature.com, 30 Nov 2005.
Spacecraft makes a grab for asteroid sample, News@Nature.com, 28 Nov 2005.
Japan Probe 'Almost Certainly' Collected First-Ever Asteroid Samples, SpaceDaily.com, Tokyo, 26 Nov 2005.
3 Oct 2005: More about Deep Impact comes from an interview with Jessica Sunshine.
8 Sep 2005: Deep inside comet Tempel 1 there are lots of organic compounds.
NASA probe could reveal comet life, scientists claim, Chandra Wickramasinghe, EurekAlert!, 29 Jun 2005.
17 Jun 2004: Mass spectrometer on Stardust sees organic matter at comet Wild 2.
Two asteroid fly-bys for Rosetta, ESA, 11 Mar 2004.
2 Mar 2004: Rosetta launched.
Hi-tech in space - Rosetta - a space sophisticate, ESA, 16 Feb 2004.
The Rosetta space probe's long trek to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko,ESA, 3 Feb 2004.
3 Jan 2004: Stardust sailed safely by comet Wild 2.
2003, October 3: NASA will explore comets for clues about the origin of life.
2003, August 25: Could alien pathogens wreak havoc on our world?
2003, March 10: New target for Rosetta: "Chury".
2003, January 21: Rosetta Update
2003, January 14: Rosetta cancelled.
Rosetta homepage at ESA.
...Rosetta: The launch date is delayed by a few days, ArianeSpace Press Release, 30 Dec 2002.
Rosetta's Ariane 5 rolls out SpaceRef.com, 20 Dec 2002.
Scientists Review Plans for Comet Probe Launch re: Rosetta Mission (doubtful after crash of Ariane V), Reuters News Service, 12 Dec 2002.
2002, August 25: Conference anticipates Stardust.
2002, August 21: CONTOUR found; mission is probably doomed.
Landing On A Cosmic Iceberg re: Rosetta Mission, ESA, 20 August 2002.
2002, August 16: Contact with CONTOUR comet probe lost.
Stardust Spacecraft Reaches for Cosmic Dust JPL, NASA, 6 August 2002.
Lockheed Martin space instrument to study comet... re: Rosetta, 23 July 2002.
Warren E. Leary, "Robot Spacecraft Will Study Icy Comets" [text], The New York Times, 25 June 2002.
Getting to Know Comet Borrelly, by Vanessa Thomas, Astronomy.com, 16 Mar 2002. "The first round of science results from Deep Space 1's successful meeting with Comet Borrelly."
2001, July 5: CONSERT ready for Rosetta.
Instruments aboard CONTOUR spacecraft will provide first surface 'fingerprint' of comet nucleus, Cornell University, 12 June 2001.
NASA Gives Go-ahead To Build 'Deep Impact' Spacecraft, NASA JPL, 24 May 2001.
Giotto homepage, European Space Agency.
More about Rosetta, European Space Agency.
2000, July 11: A revived Deep Space 1 mission will visit comet Borrelly.
Rosetta and Giotto bridge the generation gap, European Space Agency, 3 July 2000.
2000, April 27: Most interstellar particles captured by Stardust are complex organic compounds....
2000, February 22: Stardust collected interstellar dust today.
2000, February 15: The Comet Nucleus Tour (CONTOUR) mission set to build spacecraft.
1999, August 13: Stardust Update
1999, May 28: Stardust is experiencing electrical problems.
NASA Budget Squeeze Threatens Comet Mission, SpaceViews, 7 April 1999.
1999, February 6: Stardust to be launched today.
1997, November 6: NASA approves comet sample return mission.

Evidence in Lunar Soil?

Without an atmosphere capable of shielding the moon's surface from ultraviolet rays, the remnants of microbes there would necessarily be badly degraded. Nevertheless, amino acids were found in samples returned by every one of the Apollo missions that landed on the moon.

NASA originally named four very distinguished teams to independently look for signs of life in samples from the Apollo lunar missions. The teams were headed by Bart Nagy, Cyril Ponnamperuma, John Orò and Sidney W. Fox. Reporting first, Nagy's and Fox's teams both found amino acids in the Apollo 11 samples — but their wording was cautious. A negative result from another team somehow seized the publicity, and the matter was then forgotten. Yet subsequent results by Nagy's and Fox's teams were positive for all of twelve samples tested (at least one from each of the six successful missions.) Elaborate precautions taken on one mission enabled NASA to rule out contamination, for that sample anyway. Still, the confirmed discovery got almost no attention. Years later, Orò described the existence of amino acids in the lunar topsoil as "well known" (7.7).

– Lunar Soil
2000, October 27: Microorganisms from the Moon. Actually, an impact crater :(

Bacteria or Viruses in the High Atmosphere

"large virus-like particle" and two adjacent particles from high atmosphere by Prof. E. K. Bigg

A number of balloon flights were made in the US during the middle-1960s, extending up to 25 miles (40 km), not to the top of the stratosphere but well up into it. In all cases, to the surprise of the experimenters themselves, living bacteria were found. — Fred Hoyle

Another confirmation for Cosmic Ancestry would be evidence that bacteria and viruses have drifted from space into the earth's atmosphere, If they have, we should be able to find some of them still drifting there. Australian researcher E. K. Bigg examined particles collected from 1960 to the early 1980s in the upper atmosphere. He found that many of them resemble bacteria and, occasionally, viruses — but larger viruses than any known at the time (9). It is possible that the large viruslike particles seen by Bigg are contaminants from below. They were collected at an altitude of 36 kilometers, whereas 50 kilometers is now considered the minimum altitude at which we can rule out contamination from the surface as the source for particles that small (10). Still, they're interesting.

"large virus-like particle" from seawater by Prof. Marcia Gowing

If viruses fall from the sky, most of them would land in the sea. Shouldn't we be able to find viruses in seawater? In fact, seawater is full of viruses. One study found that coastal seawater contains as many as ten million large viruslike particles per quart (11). In 1993, Marcia Gowing reported finding the same particles in the guts of small marine organisms called Phaeodarians in seawater samples at every location and every depth tested (12). No one knows where they come from or what they do. Their size and shape matches the virus-like particles Bigg found in the upper atmosphere. It would be interesting to know more about them.

In January, 1998, virus particles in surprising abundance have been reported found in the most barren lakes on Earth, in Dry Valley, Antarctica. So far only free-floating, extra-cellular ones have been observed — their host is unknown. Signalling a paradigm shift, the researchers who found them wonder if they resemble "extraterrestrial life," or "ancient martians" (12.2).

– Bacteria or Viruses in the High Atmosphere
07 Feb 2018: Every day, more than 800 million viruses are deposited per square metre....
10 Aug 2013: ...a diatom fragment from 25 km high in the atmosphere.
31 Mar 2004: Isotope tests inconclusive.
17 Mar 2004: Stratospheric bacteria to be analyzed next week.
8 Jan 2004: Isotope analysis of stratospheric bacteria is postponed.
2003, September 26: LLNL will measure isotope ratios in bacteria from the high atmosphere.
2002, Mar 22: Microbes in the high atmosphere.
1999, February 3: An experiment will look for germs in the high atmosphere over India.

Immortality of Bacteria?

If life comes from space, it would have to travel over distances measured in light-years. This travel could take millions of years, even billions of years. For this to be possible, the traveling cells would have to be able to survive for that long. They would have to be immortal probably. Is there any evidence for immortality in bacteria?

Yes. On May 19, 1995, The New York Times reported that two scientists at Cal Poly revived bacterial spores that were at least 25 million years old. (12.7). Other biologists have cultured even older bacteria. Even 650-million-year-old halophiles locked in salt crystals remain viable (13). Microbiologist John Postgate also says many bacteria may be immortal (14). In fact, the apparent immortality of bacteria, even without freezing, is widely known. And with freezing, as would occur in space, the immortality of bacteria is to be expected.

Bacteria: The Space Colonists cites lots of evidence of apparent immortality.

Sequencing the Genome

The human genome is about six billion nucleotide pairs in length, counting the backup copy. Writing it out would take 1,300 volumes of 1,500 pages each. Sequencing only one copy, 650 volumes, will be a huge task. As it is sequenced, many genes will be easy to identify by function. We already know what some of them do. Others will have unknown functions, to be ascertained by future research. When that's accomplished, we will be able, in principle, to comprehend the genome of a human being. Or at least the working parts of the genome. But the working parts constitute only about 5 percent of it. That much, if it were segregated from the rest, would fill only about 30 or 35 volumes. What about the silent DNA, the other 600 plus volumes? Some of it could consist of recognizable or suspected genes for future evolution. But what about the remainder? What does it mean? Does it have any meaning? How would we know?

Physical Review Letters, 5 December 1994, contained a report entitled "Linguistic Features of Noncoding DNA Sequences" (17). Seven scientists had conducted an analysis of silent DNA which indicates that it has a property shared by all written or spoken human languages, and not by random sequences. The silent DNA follows Zipf's law. A teacher of German at Harvard, George Kingsley Zipf discovered important, quantifiable relationships among words in any language. Under Zipf's law, there is a correlation between the frequency with which a word is used, and the rank it holds on the chart of all words, listed by frequency of use. It's a descending logarithmic curve. In English, "the" is the number one word on the chart. It's the most frequently used word. The number two word is used less frequently, number three less again, etc. That much is obvious. But the shape of the curve is specific, and is always the same in real languages. The curve for silent DNA has that shape. People don't even know what the "words" are in silent DNA. In coding DNA, the three-letter sets, or codons, that ultimately specify amino acids might be called words. But in silent DNA there may be "words" of other lengths. The analysis that showed silent DNA to resemble a language was run on short DNA segments from three to eight nucleotides in length. The significance of this result has been questioned, however.

The seven scientists did a second analysis for linguistic features to measure the "redundancy" of the silent DNA. Languages have redundancy. Redundancy is the presence in any language of backup clues to meaning. In English, if I mixspell some wurds, you'll probably be able to get my meaning anyway because of redundancy. Random sequences don't have redundancy. But the silent DNA seems to have it.

As we sequence the human genome, we should try to comprehend all of it. The vast silent DNA may have important meaning, too. We already have possible clues to that effect, as in the linguistic analyses above. We should follow up on them.

since 1999 – Sequencing the Genome       (Also see Human Genome Search)

"Genes, in context," Philip Ball's How Life Works reveiwed by Michael A. Goldman, Science, 05 Apr 2024. ...the fact that much of the extragenic material plays a regulatory role in gene expression is not a compelling argument for the reduced importance of genes.
"The status of the human gene catalogue," by P. S. Carbonell-Sala, F.M. De La Vega et al., Nature, 04 Oct 2023. "For most of these non-coding RNAs, the functional relevance is currently unclear...."
"NIH project probes the human body's multitude of genomes," by Mitch Leslie, Science, 18 Aug 2023. "The genome you are conceived with is very different from the genome you die with."
"Unchartered territory in the human genome," The Max Delbrück Center, 13 Jul 2022.
Long lambasted as junk DNA or genomic parasites, transposable elements turn out to be contributors to adaptation by Christie Wilcox, The Scientist, 17 Jan 2022.
Karen Miga Fills In the Missing Pieces of Our Genome by Constanza Hevia, Quanta Magazine, 08 Sep 2021.
The complete sequence of a human genome by Sergey Nurk et al., bioRxiv, 27 May 2021.
A complete human genome sequence is close... by Sara Reardon, Nature, 04 Jun 2021 (see left).
Interpreting the Human Genome's Instruction Manual, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory via Newswise, 05 Aug 2020.
New human gene tally reignites debate by Cassandra Willyard, Nature, 19 Jun 2018.
On causal roles and selected effects: our genome is mostly junk by W. Ford Doolittle and Tyler D. P. Brunet, doi:10.1186/s12915-017-0460-9, BMC Biol, 05 Dec 2017.
Identification of individuals by trait prediction using whole-genome sequencing data by 27 authors including J. Craig Venter, doi:10.1073/pnas.1711125114, PNAS, 19 Sep 2017.
10 Feb 2015: The challenge is trying to learn how to read that software that we have.
Life doesn't make trash by Itai Yanai and Martin Lercher, Aeon Magazine, accessed 14 Jan 2015. Junk is not trash, and it might come in handy at some point....
Fyodor D. Urnov, "Biological techniques: Edit the genome to understand it" [html], doi:10.1038/nature13659, p 40-41 v 513, Nature, 4 Sep 2014. "...The juxtaposition of genome editing and deep-sequencing technologies will, without doubt, provide a basis for progress in our quest to understand how our DNA makes us who we are."
6 Sep 2012: Almost 80% of the genome is biochemically active....
"Best is yet to come" [html], doi:10.1038/470140a, p140 v470, Nature, 10 Feb 2011. "Ten years after the human genome was sequenced, its promise is still to be fulfilled."
Elizabeth Pennisi, "Shining a Light on the Genome's 'Dark Matter'" [summary], doi:10.1126/science.330.6011.1614, p1614 v330, Science, 17 Dec 2010.
My genome has how many genes? by Alla Katsnelson, Nature.com, 12 Oct 2010.
...Biggest Genome Ever by Elizabeth Pennisi, ScienceNow, 7 Oct 2010.
Robin D. Dowell, Owen Ryan et al., "Genotype to Phenotype: A Complex Problem" [abstract], doi:10.1126/science.1189015, p469 v328, Science, 23 Apr 2010.
Erika Check Hayden, "Human genome at ten: Life is complicated" [html], doi:10.1038/464664a, p664-667 v464, Nature, 1 Apr 2010. "We've made the mistake of equating the gathering of information with a corresponding increase in insight and understanding."
Anna Petherick, "The production line" [text], doi:10.1038/4541042a, p 1042-1045 v 454, Nature, 28 Aug 2008. ...In 2005, geneticist Thomas Gingeras announced that some cells churn out RNA molecules from about 80% of their DNA.
Elliott H. Margulies and Ewan Birney, "Approaches to comparative sequence analysis: towards a functional view of vertebrate genomes" [abstract], doi:10.1038/nrg2185, p 303-313 v 9, Nature Reviews Genetics, Apr 2008.
Michele Clamp et al., "Distinguishing protein-coding and noncoding genes in the human genome" [abstract], 10.1073/pnas.0709013104, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, online 26 Nov 2007. "...Cutting the number of protein-coding genes to [approx.] 20,500."
Evolutionary Comparison Finds New Human Genes, Cornell University on Newswise.com, 20 Nov 2007.
Language evolved in a leap, re: Zipf's law, by Philip Ball, Nature News Service, 22 Jan 2003.
New computer program detects overlooked gene segments: Previous estimates of human gene number too low, by Peter W. Sherwood, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, posted on EurekAlert!, 28 November 2001.
2001, October 13: 70,000 human genes?
2001, February 12: The human genome has only about 30,000 genes.
Scientists disagree on how many genes make a person, Nandotimes.com, 17 December 2000.
Human gene numbers questioned, BBCNews, 19 May 2000. (Estimates from 30,000 to 120,000.)
Nicholas Wade, "Number of Human Genes Is Put at 140,000, a Significant Gain" [text], The New York Times, 23 September 1999.

Rewinding the Tape

It is interesting to consider whether things could have turned out differently, but heretofore this was only a hypothetical question. Now, a recent experiment has done what was previously thought impossible: a group of scientists from Indiana University and Cuernavaca, Mexico, have repeated in a greenhouse the evolution of a species of sunflower, Helianthus anomalous. The species first evolved by hybridization in nature about 100,000 years ago. Today this sunflower is found in swales and sand dunes in Arizona and Utah. In the experiment the scientists crossed two older species of sunflower known to be ancestral to the hybrid sunflower species and recreated it. They artificially bred by different crossing schemes three different lines of hybrid sunflower plants and watched the three lines reproduce separately for five generations. Then, with modern techniques, they compared the composition of the genes along the chromosomes of those three lines to each other and to that of the naturally occurring hybrid sunflower line (19) —

• "...Remarkably, despite the different crossing schemes, plants in all three lines converged to nearly identical gene combinations....
• "Even more remarkably... the gene combinations evolving in the experimental lines were similar to those seen in the naturally occurring [hybrid sunflower], which probably arose more than 100,000 years ago.
• "...Gould, for example, has repeatedly asserted that "rewinding the tape of life" would always produce a different array of evolutionary end products.... When this tape is rewound, it plays pretty much the same program" (20).

– Rewinding the Tape
Predictability and parallelism in the contemporary evolution of hybrid genomes by Quinn K. Langdon et al., doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1009914, PLoS Genet, 27 Jan 2022. Together our results demonstrate that genomic outcomes of hybridization between distinct species pairs are in part predictable.
Contingency and determinism in evolution: Replaying life's tape by Zachary D. Blount, Richard E. Lenski and Jonathan B. Losos, Science, 09 Nov 2018.
23 Aug 2017: Improbable Destinies, by Jonathan B. Losos
How repeatable is evolutionary history? by Diana Lutz, Washington University in St. Louis (+PhysOrg.com +Newswise), 23 Jun 2014.

Eukaryotic Genes in Bacteria?

In August, 1996, Science carried a writeup by the group of scientists who had just obtained the complete sequence of the genome of the archaebacterium Methanococcus jannaschii (21). Archaebacteria are likely candidates for the first cells on Earth because they can survive in harsh environments and metabolize thing like rocks.

Among the surprises contained in the genome of M. jannaschii were five genes for histones. Histones are essential proteins used by eukaryotic cells to help form their complex chromosomal structure. Neither eubacteria nor archaebacteria are known [1996] to use histones. Neo-Darwinism does not account for the presence of histone genes in bacteria. [But see Henneman et al., 2018.]

Even more interesting, two of the five histone genes are not part of the main circular chromosome, but are carried on a much smaller "extra chromosomal element." This is interesting because viral genomes must temporarily become a kind of extra chromosomal element before the process of transduction from one cell to another. It looks like two of the histone genes in this archaebacterium are ready to be transducted to a higher form of life where they can be useful.

– Eukaryotic Genes in Bacteria? (What'sNEW under "Viruses..." lists hundreds of examples.)
14 Apr 2023: iHGT of one bacterial gene is crucial for the evolution of the vertebrate eye.
Structure and function of archaeal histones by Bram Henneman et al., PLoS Genet., 13 Sep 2018.
Genes Older Than Earth? is a possibly related local webpage, posted 8 Feb 2011.
Metazoan Genes Older Than Metazoa? is our local webpage about genes older than the features they encode, first posted Oct 1996, with updates.

Interstellar Chemistry

It is reasonable to compare the predictions made by the chemistry of Cosmic Ancestry to those made by nonbiological chemistry. How well do the opposing theories account for the observed abundances in comets and interstellar dust of complex organic polymers, or even simple organic compounds such as methane?

Comet Hyakutake by Kolmhofer and Raab

– Interstellar Chemistry
Methane formation driven by reactive oxygen species across all living organisms by L. Ernst, B. Steinfeld, U. Barayeu et al., doi:10.1038/s41586-022-04511-9, Nature, 17 Mar 2022.
Hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis in archaeal phylum Verstraetearchaeota reveals the shared ancestry of all methanogens by Bojk A. Berghuis et al., doi:10.1073/pnas.1815631116, PNAS, 12 Mar 2019.
03 Mar 2018: ...the spacecraft's instruments also detected methane, carbon dioxide, ammonia, molecular nitrogen and molecular hydrogen....
Organic Haze as a Biosignature in Anoxic Earth-like Atmospheres by Arney Giada et al., doi:10.1089/ast.2017.1666, Astrobiology, online 30 Nov 2017. Titan's abiotic organic haze shows plainly that the detection of haze alone is inadequate for biosignature considerations[!]
Methane: Fuel or Exhaust at the Emergence of Life? by Michael J. Russell and Wolfgang Nitschke, doi:10.1089/ast.2016.1599, Astrobiology, online 26 Sep 2017. ...recent hydrothermal experiments simulating serpentinization have failed to generate methane so far....
Holm N.G., Oze C., Mousis O., Waite J.H., and Guilbert-Lepoutre A., "Serpentinization and the Formation of H2 and CH4 on Celestial Bodies (Planets, Moons, Comets)" [abstract], doi:10.1089/ast.2014.1188, Astrobiology, 22 Jul 2015.
22 Mar 2008: Methane and water, but no carbon monoxide, can be seen in the atmosphere of an extrasolar planet 63 lightyears away.
Ludmila Chistoserdova et al., "The Enigmatic Planctomycetes May Hold a Key to the Origins of Methanogenesis and Methylotrophy," p 1234-1241 v 21 n 7 Mol. Biol. Evol., July 2004.
9 Jan 2004: Complex organics in interstellar dust confirmed.
2000, November 3: Archaebacteria may produce methane underground, far from any oil.
Researchers Find New Pathway To Making Methane, ScienceDaily, 16 August 1999.
Juske Horita and Michael E. Berndt, "Abiogenic Methane Formation and Isotopic Fractionation Under Hydrothermal Conditions" [abstract], doi:10.1126/science.285.5430.1055, p 1055-1057 v 285 Science, 13 August 1999. The new pathway requires high heat and pressure, not available in space or on small bodies like comets.

Postscript: Pasteur and Popper

In the nineteenth century, Louis Pasteur observed that one cannot prove a negative (28). His principle that life comes only from life is a prime example of a negative principle. Pasteur could defend it only by demonstrating that each counterexample — each alleged example of life from nonlife — was actually the result of incorrect, unsterile procedure. Of course, one experiment could still falsify Pasteur's principle.

Popper

In the twentieth century, philosopher of science Karl Popper made a virtue of Pasteur's situation. Popper said that a theory can be called scientific only if it comes with tests that could prove it false. Pasteur's principle satisfies that requirement.

Cosmic Ancestry also meets Popper's falsifiabiliy criterion for science. In fact, Cosmic Ancestry is falsifiable to an even greater extent than Pasteur's principle, because, 1) Not just the origin of life by natural means, but also, open-ended macroevolutionary progress in a biologically closed system is considered impossible in Cosmic Ancestry, and 2) Falsification tests can be performed in biology or computers, since computers also depend on lengthy encoded instructions and are subject to the same "logical entropy" principle as life. Of course any falsifying experiment would need to be repeatable and convincing, but such tests are easy to propose, especially for computers.

The mainstream theory contains the principles that life can somehow arise naturally from nonliving chemicals, and somehow evolve in a biologically closed system from that beginning to forms like the ones we have on Earth today. What tests could falsify these principles?

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Sea Lilies on Ancient Mars, about a fossil seen by NASA's Opportunity rover in 2004.

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