But the new studies say nothing, in our reading, about how new genetic programs for new features are originally composed in a genetically closed system, as must somehow happen in standard darwinian theory. The closest approach to this question by anyone in this magazine issue comes from Kennedy: Genes that are now known to exert complex effects on body form at the macro level answer the commonly stated objection that complex structures could not have evolved from simpler precursors. If this not-so-new suggestion really meets that objection, someone should be able to demonstrate the process, at least in a computer model. Until then, it's one more "Just So" story. Meanwhile, evidence that new genetic programs are acquired is accumulating steadily. The acquisition of new programs in a genetically open system is the basis for the scientific amendment to darwinism that we propose. We think it deserves consideration.

Elizabeth Culotta and Elizabeth Pennisi, "Evolution in Action" [

Red rainwater, and spores found in it (magnified)

For background, on the morning of 25 July 2001, about three hours after an unexplained sonic boom, red rain began to fall along the west coast of southern India. Two scientists from Mahatma Gandhi University wondered if cometary panspermia might account for the coincidental events. They found red spores in rainwater samples throughout the region.

But two years later, analysing data from satellites and laser radar, the VSSC group claimed they "found that the culprit was a dust cloud that originated in the gulf countries."

The spectrographic data showed that the gases ...must be orbiting close to the star, approximately in its 'habitable zone', the region where Earth orbits the Sun and where water is just at the borderline between liquid and gaseous states. The report will soon appear in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Like almost everyone else, Ward ignores the software aspect of the origin-of-life problem. Nothing new about that. But with all his willingness to consider every imaginable scenario, we wish he were more receptive to stronger versions of panspermia. He admits only the standard two possibilities for the origin-of-life: God or "some chemical pathway" (p xxiv). To us, the complete lack of direct evidence for any origin-of-life, anywhere, ever, suggests a third possibility: life always existed.

He writes, "There are many ways for inanimate matter to take on the properties of life" (p 17). Like what? And he is sure that DNA could not persist in amber (p 91), but does he know that bacterial spores 25 to 40 million years old were revived from amber in 1995? And when he says flatly that interstellar panspermia "Just won't happen" (p 151), he ignores comets as possible transfer vehicles. But elsewhere he admits them. Oh well. Having made our few complaints, we are delighted that the book has much to say about panspermia. The listing for panspermia in the index has 11 subtopics with 32 page references. Ward confirms that panspermia is a serious theory. This confirmation outweighs our misgivings and we recommend this book!

Peter D. Ward, Life as We Do Not Know It: The NASA Search for (and Synthesis of) Alien Life, ISBN 9780143038498, 288 pages,

In many respects, the complexity of the anthozoan gene set does not differ substantially from that of vertebrates and frequently exceeds that of the model invertebrates Drosophila and Caenorhabditis. ...One possible interpretation of the counterintuitive genetic complexity of cnidarians could be that they are actually highly derived deuterostomes. However, this interpretation is strongly contradicted by a large body of phylogenetic data, which indicates that cnidarians are a monophyletic group basal within the Eumetazoa and forming the sister group to the Bilateria....

Four general conclusions emerge from this work. First, a link between morphological complexity and gene number is illusory. Second, the common ancestor of cnidarians and 'higher' animals (the Ureumetazoa) was surprisingly complex at the genetic level. Third, a small percentage of genes in the two anthozoans represents preserved ancient genes that were present in the common ancestor but have been lost in the 'higher' animals so far examined. ...Finally, gene loss has had a major role in animal evolution, and has been particularly extensive in the ecdysozoan model organisms. ...The remarkable genetic complexity of anthozoan cnidarians implies that most of the qualitative genetic differences between animals and other eukaryotes are ancestral....

This finding adds to the list of surprises for darwinism coming from genome sequences. Its interpretation under standard darwinism is far from obvious. However, for cosmic ancestry, the presence of complex genes in simple life forms is expected. It supports the contention that the basic genetic programs for higher life forms
1) may reside in species that do not deploy them,
2) may be acquired by gene transfer,
3) may be optimized, but not originally composed, by strictly darwinian evolution, and
4) are as old as life.

Ulrich Technau et al., "Maintenance of ancestral complexity and non-metazoan genes in two basal cnidarians" [

researchers Detlev Arendt, Florian Raible and Peer Bork

Among thirty sequenced genes found in many animals, the orthologs in humans contain 8.4 introns per gene, while the orthologs in nematodes and insects contain only 2.4 to 5.4 per gene. From evidence like this biologists have deduced that evolution to higher forms correlates with intron-gain. But in the marine worm, which is even more primitive, the same orthologs have 7.8 introns per gene, this study reveals. More importantly, many of the worm's introns have sequences and positions nearly identical with those of humans'.

Florian Raible, who performed most of the computer analyses, says, "The fraction of Platynereis genes we have been able to look at tells a very clear story. The worm's genes are very similar to human genes." In Science his team writes, "We conclude that at least two-thirds of the compared human introns already existed in the urbilaterian ancestor at precisely the same amino acid position and phase."

We hope that this study has fully considered the possible effects of gene transfer and intron homing. In any case, the researchers' conclusion supports our contention that the basic genetic programming for higher life is as old as life itself.

Florian Raible et al., "Vertebrate-Type Intron-Rich Genes in the Marine Annelid Platynereis dumerilii [

Narlikar's chapter, illustrated by his wife Mangala, cites many examples in which Hoyle was ahead of the field in cosmology. When Hoyle's ideas were ultimately adopted and publicized by others, he often went uncredited. And Narlikar confirms, The standard model in cosmology is nowhere near as secure and laboratory-tested as the standard model in physics.

Wickramasinghe gives an overview of his collaboration with Hoyle concerning the content of interstellar dust, and he resumes their probabilistic critique of the darwinian account of new proteins. Chandra is aware that proteins can remain functional despite numerous amino acid substitutions. In fact, some hypervariable proteins can remain functional even if only 8% of the amino acids remain unchanged. Does this freedom mean that darwinian natural seletion might find at least those ones? Following Chandra's method (p 84-87), we see that the answer is still no.

Not too long ago, it was thought space was barren of complex organics because interstellar radiation is too harsh, the distances too great, and violent shocks too frequent to support complex chemistry, let alone survival of large molecules.... Now, however, the observations are undisputed and the previous objections have been forgotten. Complex organic molecules ...are found in every nook and cranny of our galaxy and in most other galaxies as well. NASA is touting them as potential starter ingredients for life on Earth. We think they may actually be post-biotic compounds, but we welcome this significant paradigm shift.

Douglas M. Hudgins, Charles W. Bauschlicher, Jr. and L. J. Allamandola, "Variations in the Peak Position of the 6.2μm Interstellar Emission Feature: a Tracer of N in the Interstellar Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Population" [