(ORDO NEWS) — It seems that those scientists who believe that complex life forms appeared on Earth as a result of a pandemic that happened about 2 billion years ago are right.
The simplest microorganisms – the so-called Asgardian archaea, which already lived then, fell ill – they became infected with some kind of viruses. And they introduced their DNA into them.
Thanks to new hereditary information, primitive cells have become more complex – they have acquired nuclei, mitochondria and other organelles – an intracellular filling.
That is, they became eukaryotes – creatures with full-fledged cells that make up all animals, including humans.
In other words, we all descended from the Asgadian archaea, whose evolution was pushed by viruses. As a result, they contributed to the emergence of intelligent life.
– There is such a hypothesis – the so-called viral eukaryogenesis – assures Ian Rambo (Ian M. Rambo) from the University of Texas (Department of Marine Science, The University of Texas at Austin), under whose leadership the progenitors of complex life were examined.
Scientists, in fact, found confirmation of the hypothesis. Using the deep-sea submersible Alvin, they extracted these same Asgardian archaea from the bottom sediments of the Gulf of California – raised from a depth of 2000 meters.
They examined relatives and found traces of a viral infection they had suffered. Namely, stored – embedded – viral DNA. The viruses themselves were also identified – as many as 6 pieces.
Tools of God
There are no creatures on Earth simpler than viruses. These creatures are so simple that scientists cannot fully understand whether they are actually alive.
Or just pretending. Each virus consists of a piece of DNA and a protein shell. It cannot reproduce on its own; it integrates its genome into some living cell, for example, into the Asgardian archaea. And she begins to produce it – the virus – copies, herself. Perhaps while changing.
There is, by the way, a more “deep” hypothesis. Very logical. The fact that life has not only become more complicated thanks to viruses, but also arose from them in general.
We don’t know where viruses came from on Earth. But some, having appeared, could well become more complicated to bacteria, then again become infected, as it has now become known, with other viruses, and, in the end, evolve due to the DNA that they brought. Up to the person. Maybe that’s why the current human genome is almost half of the DNA of viruses.
Surprisingly, a virus that enters an egg or sperm gets a chance to be in all cells of the body and be inherited along with the rest of the genome.
For Darwinists, viruses are the tools of Mother Nature. With their help, she brought some living beings to the present perfection. And adapted to changing environmental conditions. And she killed others. Or didn’t fit. And they died out on their own.
Advanced creationists see viruses as divine tools, with the help of which the Creator sometimes has to make adjustments to the original plans.
The Lord punishes and saves with viruses. How else could he interfere with the life he created? Here is the real mechanism. Viral. And it is in good agreement with the modern view of divine creation, which is now advocated by believing scientists.
For example, the well-known geneticist, the head of the Human Genome Project, Francis Collins, is sure that it was God who organized evolution. And still manages it. That is, having far-reaching plans to create a person, the Almighty did not collect him by molecules.
And he created viruses first. And then he organized the case in such a way that they themselves “formed” into a person. It took about a billion years. Long, in our understanding. But God may have his own concept of time.
Who is right here – evolutionists or creationists? It is unlikely that this will ever be known. But the very idea of using viruses in the evolutionary process is admirable.
All of us here are not local, perhaps
The idea that the simplest forms of life – specifically viruses – were brought to Earth from space is defended by many scientists.
Not so long ago, astrobiologists from the USA and Japan (University of California, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Center for Life in Extreme Environments and Biology Department, Portland State University) even published an article in the journal Astrobiology called “Viruses at Large in the Universe” – literally it can be translated as “The universe is full of viruses”.
Scientists (Berliner Aaron, Mochizuki Tomohiro) and their leader Kenneth Stedman (Stedman Kenneth) assure: “infection” is underestimated.
In fact, according to the authors of the article, “the entire Universe is infected” – and interstellar space, and exoplanets, and, of course, the planets of the solar system.
Therefore, extraterrestrial life in the first place can be represented by viruses, and not by some bacteria, on the search for which colleagues have focused. Especially from NASA.
Astrobiologists advise starting the search for “infection” from the nearest celestial bodies – from the Moon, where reserves of water ice have been discovered, from Europe – the satellite of Jupiter and the like, on which there seem to be subglacial oceans.
Suddenly present in them as densely as on Earth? That is, approximately 100-200 thousand “individuals” in each milliliter of water in the oceans.
Masters of the microworld
Viruses are the most common form of life on Earth. There are 100 times more of them on our planet than any other organisms.
The number is astronomical – many trillions of trillions. Virologists say that if you put all the earth’s viruses in one line, it will stretch for more than 200 million light years. For comparison: the diameter of our galaxy – the Milky Way – is much smaller.
Viruses are able to tolerate cosmic cold, hard ionized radiation, most do not die in a vacuum, and some do not die even when boiled in concentrated sulfuric acid.
Such an amazing survivability of viruses, their abundance inspires scientists with optimism. In the sense that ours – earthly ones – are not alone in the Universe. Long ago, their “ancestors” could have been carried away into near and far space by impacts of asteroids and meteorites, scattered over other planets.
Although the opposite is not excluded: that the viruses that have taken root on Earth brought from other worlds. For example, with comets.
Perhaps a person is woven from viruses that have flown to Earth from other worlds. But if so, then we are not quite local – half aliens.
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