What'sNEW
This work demonstrates how de novo gene birth can provide
immediate benefits to bacteria under viral threat. ...These findings highlight the capacity of unevolved sequences to give rise to biologically useful functions, underscoring a central principle in evolutionary biology: Functional novelty can arise ...directly from nongenic DNA. These sentences come in the Discussion section of a new study of phage infection in E. Coli by biologists at MIT.
 Emergence of antiphage functions from random sequence libraries reveals mechanisms of gene birth, by Idan Frumkin et al, PNAS, 15 Oct 2025.
Although the first quoted sentence is demonstrably true, the second is not. The de novo genes in this study are analogous to computer access codes. When a virus attacks a bacterium, it may respond with changed codes that thwart the virus, which may also change. Repeated rounds of this can be called "immune warfare." But access codes have no functional meaning.
Where new genes come from is a thematic question of cosmic ancestry. "New genes" is my vernacular for new genetic programming —with functional meaning— that can lead to sustained macroevolutionary progress. The de novo genes in this study do not qualify. In fact, the new consensus is that prokaryotes gain functional new genes exclusively by HGT.
 How Prokaryotes Evolve has evidence for horizontal gene transfer (HGT) ezclusively.
Macroevolutionary Progress Redefined... differentiates between
genetic changes with, and without, meaning.
Among eukaryotes, yes, de novo genes are known to supply important new functions, but immune warfare is not their source. With no apparent history of mutation-and-selection, they "seem to have come from nowhere." HGT is the likeliest explanation.
...De Novo Genes has important updates about immune warfare, including:
21 Aug 2016: Can antagonistic evolution compose de novo genes?
...the genetic architecture underlying human cognition seems to [predate] the emergence of tetrapods.
The evolution of cognitive abilities in marine animals: ...insights about cognition gene polymorphisms in Coelocanths and lungfish, by Zhizhou Zhang et al, [OA link] Academia Molecular Biology and Genomics, 28 Nov 2025.
...Genes Older than Metazoa? and Genes Older than Earth? have related examples and links.
Moons in eccentric orbits around rogue planets may retain liquid oceans for billions of years, sustained by tidal heating alone. A pair of astronomers at the Konkoly Observatory in Budapest reach this conclusion after a deep mathematical analysis showing that a lunar orbit could remain stable even if the planet is flung free of its star. This is especially interesting, because rogue planets are far more common than we used to think.
Life in the dark:
Potential urability of the moons of rogue planets, by Viktória Fröhlich and Zsolt Regály, doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202556673, Astronomy & Astrophysics, 06 Jan 2026.
The two astronomers suggest that life could originate on tidally-heated, rogue-orbiting moons. I notice, instead, that life could persist on them. This reminds me of "wet panspermia," the potential transfer of whole biospheres on asteroids, comets and larger bodies with long-lasting heat sources. Why not?!
29 Jan 2023: Wet Panspermia, as suggested by Hoyle & Wickramasinghe, Hoover and Hand.
Life on Europa, Other Moons, Other Planets? has links about possibly habitable worlds.
Carl Sagan wth Viking lander (model)
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...data from the Viking Mars mission were misinterpreted in 1976 as showing ...no life, even though the three life detection experiments ...all reported life-positive data under the terms of their experimental design. This mistake has been propagated for a half century.... Biochemist Steve Benner and colleagues want a re-examination.
Viking Mars, Now 50 Years Old, Still Needs a Scientific Analysis, by Steven A. Benner, Dirk Schulze-Makuch, Jan Spacek and Clay Abraham, Astrobiology, online 24 Dec 2025.
Life on Mars! has background and updates
about Viking.
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