Site compiled by Brig Klyce
this review by
Charles Eisenstein
Department of Science, Technology, and Society
The Pennsylvannia State University
This site is devoted to "Cosmic Ancestry", the hypothesis that (1) life on Earth was seeded from space, and (2) that macroevolution depends on genetic programs of extraterrestrial origin.
The first of these ideas is known as Panspermia, which, while controversial, is nonetheless within the realm of mainstream scientific discourse. Originating with the pre-Socratic philosopher Anaxagoras, it eventually yielded to the Aristotelian theory of Spontaneous Generation that still holds sway today in the form of the "RNA World" -- the supposed earthly abiotic precursor to life. Despite a paucity of evidence, research on the RNA World has become, in Panspermia.org author Brig Klyce's words, a "medium-sized industry" unto itself. The "primordial soup" of naked replicating RNA is a firmly ensconced orthodoxy.
Yet as Klyce's numerous citations of peer-reviewed scientific literature demonstrate, the spontaneous terrestrial origin of life, orthodoxy though it may be, is not a sacrosanct orthordoxy. Klyce presents a variety of evidence for extraterrestrial life, including meteorite microfossils and Hoyle and Wickramasinghe's analysis of interstellar dust. He also ably disposes of the easy objections to panspermia -- that bacteria could never survive the hard radiation oand near-zero temperatures of interstellar space, and that there is non plausible vector to transmit them to Earth. Citing recent findings on the durability of bacteria and their spores, and on the properties of comets and meteors, Klyce builds a convincing case that extraterrestrial origin is at least plausible.
Far more controversial -- ane even more thoroughly argued -- is the website's assertion that extraterrestrially originating genetic material is responsible for macroevolution in addition to biogenesis. Kllyce is not reticent in pointing out that this constitutes a "third alternative" in the Darwinism vs Intelligent Design debate. His critique of the neo-Darwinian synthesis is thorough, dispassionate, and devastating -- far more compelling and intelligent than any of the Intelligent Design sites I have found on the Internet. And for each gap in the logic of neo-Darwinism, Klyce offers a solution. Appealing to the increasingly recognized ubiquity of horizontal gene transfer across species and even kingdoms, Klyce offers satisfying explanations for such problems as irreducible complexity, the survivability of intermediates, the improbability of traversing the enormous distances in sequence space that separate genes, the apparent gaps in the fossil record, the appearance of embryological coordinating genese before the apperance of the steps they coordinate, the existence of highly conserved genomic regions offering no survival advantage, and much more.
The most impressive achievement of Panspermia.org is probably its annotated survey of recent publications in related fields. For anyone interested in the New Biology, it is a treasure trove of articles from academic journals and the scientific press about new developments in astrobiology, genetics, and evolutionary biology. Updated almost daily, the "What's New" section catalogs the evidence for a gathering paradigm shift in biology.
Cosmic Ancestry is indeed part of a larger shift in our understanding of the function of DNA and the mechanisms of evolution. Integrated with Gaia Theory, it posits a purpose or a pre-direction to evolution embodied in ancient genes. Darwinian natural selection, says Klyce, plays a role in modifying and selecting among variants, but he joins a growing chorus of voices in denying that it can explain macroevolution. Major evolutionary jumps happen through the integration of pre-existing genetic material as transposons, via retroviral and other vectors -- and our DNA contains the "programs" to successfully accommodate such transfer.
Panspermia.org does not shy away from some of the more challenging implications of Cosmic Ancestry. While some dismiss Panspermia as merely pushing back the origin-of-life question another five or ten billion years, Klyce maintains that life could not have arisen spontaneously then either. His work is certainly relevant to proponents of the steady-state universe and other dissenting theories of cosmogenesis. He also discusses redical ideas such as directed Panspermia, which says that Earth was seeded deliberately by an alien intelligence. Finally, he leavs the door open to the idea that evolution is not yet finished; that there lurks an unexpressed potential inside our DNA. Some of the more New-Agey speculations on the hidden potential of DNA might therefore find a degree of intellectual justification in this website, although Panspermia.org itself sticks to the science.
Panspermia.org is accessible to the lay reader and scientist alike. Important ideas are introduced on a basic level, buttressed with links to cutting edge research which Klyce elegantly and trenchantly applies to his thesis. The editing is superb and the scientific terminology rarely misapplied -- an impressive feat given that the author is not himself a professional scientist. This website makes an excellent case for bringing a new theory with vast explanatory power into the debate on life's origins and evolution.