As more and more giant viruses have been discovered, scientists have started to wonder whether some genes in living organisms actually came from ancient viruses. “Viruses are not traditionally considered alive,” writes Sarah Zang in The Atlantic, “because they lack the cellular machinery to replicate on their own. But scientists have found giant viruses with genes for building proteins, which are necessary for replication.
“We have other species that are even longer lived than humans,” says researcher Andrei Seluanov at the University of Rochester. Next steps involve analyzing whether species that have longer lifespans than humans—like the bowhead whale, which can live more than 200 years—have evolved even more robust SIRT6 genes.
A third extinct “ghost species” beyond Neanderthals and Denisovans that interbred with anatomically modern humans has been unveiled by researchers from Spain and Estonia using artificial intelligence. This third extinct species is likely a hybrid or close relative of Neanderthals and Denisovans that crossbred with “Out of Africa” modern humans in Asia.
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“I think that if we find life elsewhere it’s going to look, at least chemically, very much like modern life,” says evolutionary biologist William Martin at the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf, Germany. “Among the astrobiological implications of our LUCA paper is the fact that you do not need light. It’s chemical energy that ran the origin of life, chemical energy that ran the first cells and chemical energy that is present today on bodies like Enceladus.”
The “Planet Earth Report” connects you to the day’s news headlines on the discoveries, people, and events changing our planet and the future of the human species.
