What'sNEW
Genes older than the first cells on Earth? That's a fair way to restate the conclusion of a study from three American scientists looking into the origin-of-life. They see several genes that must have been complete and ready to function before "LUCA," the last universal common ancestor. These include, for example, families of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases, the enzymes that load tRNAs with the correct amino acids. Of course, this makes absolutely no sense under neo-darwinian philosophy.
 "Universal paralogs provide a window into evolution before the last universal common ancestor," by Aaron D. Goldman, Gregory P. Fournier and Betül Kaçar, Cell, 05 Feb 2026.
"Scientists describe a window into evolution before the tree of life," Oberlin College via EurekAlert!, 05 Feb 2026.
 the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science: an affiliation of first author Goldman.
 Thanks, Google Alerts.
 Genes Older than Earth? mentions "Genes already present at the Last Universal Common Ancestor...."
The RNA World and Other Origin-of-Life Theories has related background and many updates.
... dormant microorganisms inside the comet could have been reactivated by heat and the presence of temporary liquid water, metabolizing available organic compounds and releasing methane as a byproduct....
This would exemplify cometary panspermia, as proposed by Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe over forty years ago. The case is especially interesting because comet 3I is only the third confirmed interstellar comet to visit the inner solar system. (The first was 'Oumuamua, in 2017.)
Comet 3I reached perihelion October 29-30, at c. 1.5 au, when abundant water was released. The surprising methane, along with carbon dioxide and reduced water, was detected only six and eight weeks later, when the comet was outbound at c. 2.2 and 2.5 au.
The Volatile Inventory of 3I/ATLAS as seen with JWST/MIRI, by Matthew Belyakov, Ian Wong et al, arXiv:2601.22034v1 [abstract | pdf], 30 Jan 2026.
Is There Life on 3I/ATLAS? by Avi Loeb, Medium.com, 02 Feb 2026.
Signs of methane on comet 3I/ATLAS reinforce ...panspermia, by Redação Bytal, MixVale.com, 04 Feb 2026.
Thanks, Google Alerts.
Comets: The Delivery System has background and updates.
Mainstream theory predicted data points in the lower right corner. As we see deeper (leftward) the discrepancy grows.
|
JWST has revealed a stunning population of bright galaxies at surprisingly early epochs, z >10.... These are the opening words of a report from a large international team of astronomers seeking to "observe the earliest galaxies in the universe." The observations indicate that there are >100 times more bright early galaxies than the big bang theory predicts. This reconfirms earlier findings from the Webb telescope: Within weeks of the first science operations, JWST's images revealed an apparent abundance of bright galaxies at [z >10] challenging pre-JWST consensus models.
A Cosmic Miracle: A Remarkably Luminous Galaxy at zspec=14.44 Confirmed with JWST, arXiv:2505.11263v2 [abstract | pdf], 28 Jan 2026.
Webb gazes further back in time, by Bethany Downer, European Space Agency +Phys.Org, 28 Jan 2026.
We find that the early Universe looks nothing like what we predicted....
The mainstream big bang theory is severely challenged by the latest data, but it was subject to challenge already, on logical and evidentiary grounds. The news is welcome, because, if a single big bang is not the last word, the whole story, including biology, can make more sense.
12 Aug 2022: preliminary report, same story.
The End and the Big Bang has background and updates.
...the poet's job is to love people and show them... that science should resist the push toward specialization and break down the artificial boundaries between discispline that keep us from seeing the full picture of reality.
Foreward by Maria Popova to the 2025 edition of Alpha and Omega, by Jane Ellen Harrison (1915).
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 from MIT of phage infection in E. Coli.
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 consensus is that prokaryotes gain functional new genes exclusively by HGT.
How Prokaryotes Evolve explains the new consensus.
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)
|
...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 (paid subscribers only) 24 Dec 2025.
Life on Mars! has background and updates
about Viking.
![]()
|
