Olá a todos, (Hello everyone,) Talvez vos possa interessar este novo trabalho que acabou de ser publicado. (Perhaps you may interested in this new work, which has just been published.)

If aliens do exist they probably look like HUMANS

Convergent Evolution

Life's Solution

Dr. George Nickas (ret.-Hanover College), Madison, Indiana
Fred Hoyle: Interviewed... is a related local webpage.

Dark Life: Biology

Charles R. Marshall, "When Prior Belief Trumps Scholarship" (review of Darwin's Doubt, by Stephen C. Meyer, HarperCollins, 2013), Science, 20 Sep 2013.

Brig, here's an interesting statement tucked away in this Science review: "In fact, our present understanding of morphogenesis indicates that new phyla were not made by new genes but largely emerged through the rewiring of the gene regulatory networks (GRNs) of already existing genes"

This observation is startling, all the more so for being tossed off so casually. I know this is familiar ground for you, but let me editorialize: Evidently, we can say that the genes for descendant species were there already in remote ancestors, or that the GRNs for descendant species were there already, or both were there already. 

In any case, what were they doing there? If they were not yet expressed in the ancestral species, what were they doing there? Were they silent passengers that just happened to be adaptive when expressed in descendants?  That seems far fetched.

But it all makes sense and is to be expected if evolution is a case of development, with epigenetic mechanisms regulating the differentiation of species in some manner similar to that in which such mechanisms regulate the differentiation of cells during ontogeny, or development.

Compare quoted passage to this, "In fact, our present understanding of cellular differentiation in developing organisms indicates that new cell types are not made by new genes but largely emerge through the rewiring of the gene regulatory networks (GRNs) of already existing genes"

But if evolution is an instance of development, then what kind of creature is developing?

Dear Professor Klyce, The mars exploration rover Curiosity recently sampled nitrogen in the soil of Mars. Here is the link to the announcement: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4516

Albeit NASA concludes this further elevates Mars as a habitable zone for organisms and the nitrates are in a form usable for known organism, NASA prefers instead to argue for a delivery by meteorites scenario, which does seem to be a good fit with the observed quantities.

Based on the presumed fossil appearances, the findings from the Spirit exploration rover hinting on a higher oxygen contend in the Martian atmosphere some 3.7 billion years ago, the similarity of terrain features with fossilized biofilm strata (Noffke), the Viking data (Levin et al, which should have been reevaluated in any case with finding of methane because it was ruled out back then for the lack of detection of organics) and the initial studies on ALH48001 (McKay) and the special topology of some Martian (presumed) craters (including Gale) I think a case could be made for the nitrogen actually being a trace of earlier biogenic activity. I am still curious about the high concentrations of argon 40 and think it would possibly useful to do some comparative work to terrestrial marine strata.

...The answer can only elude us for so long :)

For your information. Best regards, Sascha Wageringel

...Fixed nitrogen on the surface of Mars is the related What'sNEW article, 26 Mar 2015.

Dr. Klyce, I am passing on this article to you and possibly for your readers on Cosmic Ancestry.

Plague outbreaks that ravaged Europe for centuries were driven by climate changes in Asia, The Conversation, 23 Feb 2015.

As you know Hoyle and Wickramasinghe published extensively on the issue of the origin of diseases--bacterial and viral. In particular they wrote about the Black Death in Europe as being airborne traveling to Europe from the East--not transmitted by rats which is the conventional wisdom. They discuss this in their  book Diseases From Space as well as a number of other publications. They emphasize atmospheric effects in great detail in a number of their publications; thus, the above article is welcome because it provides independent support for H+W's  thesis. I discussed this idea and used their work extensively with my students in my LIfe In The Universe course which I taught at Hanover College for over ten years.

Dr. George Nickas | Madison, Indiana

Boris V. Schmid et al., "Climate-driven introduction of the Black Death and successive plague reintroductions into Europe" [abstract], doi:10.1073/pnas.1412887112, PNAS, 23 Feb 2015.
Influenza from Space? has related discussion and links.

Oil Eating Microbes Have Worldwide Underground Connections by David Biello, Scientific American, 15 Feb 2015.
Ancient rocks show life could have flourished on Earth 3.2 billion years ago by Hannah Hickey, University of Washington (+PhysOrg.com), 16 Feb 2015.

Dear Dr. Klyce: As someone who has some familiarity with the Harvard Origins of Life Initiative, directed by Professor Dimitar Sasselov, you may be interested in the exoplanet learning opportunity described below.

Super-Earths And Life, an entirely online interactive course taught by Professor Sasselov, will begin on February 10, 2015. This interactive course is about alien life, how we search for it, and what this teaches us about our place in the universe.

Super-Earths And Life is offered at no charge through EdX, a new nonprofit virtual learning platform founded by Harvard University and MIT.

Full information on this online course is available at: [information].

Registration details can be found at: [registration].

Please feel free to share this message with friends and colleagues who are interested in the search for habitable planets.

With best regards, Amanda Preston

Amanda Preston | Executive Director
Harvard University Origins of Life Initiative
60 Garden Street, MS-16 | Cambridge, MA 02138