Genetic material from outer space found in a meteorite in Australia may well have played a key role in the origin of life on Earth, according to a study to be published Sunday.
Seafloor sediments host diverse microbial ecosystems As much as 70 percent of the microbes alive on Earth reside on and just below the ocean floor, two new studies suggest. The seafloor was once thought to be a barren expanse of muck dotted with an occasional thriving ecosystem near a hydrothermal vent. More recently, however, scientists have discovered that microorganisms can fuel their metabolisms by taking advantage of the chemical energy stored in various minerals, including those that make up the ocean crust.
Michael Le Page writes in New Scientist:Most of us are happy to admit that we do not understand, say, the string theory in physics, yet we are all convinced we understand evolution. In fact, as biologists are discovering, its consequences can be stranger than we ever imagined. Evolution must be the best-known yet worst-understood of all scientific theories.Shared misconceptions:– Everything is an adaptation produced by natural selection– Natural selection is the only means of evolution– Natural selection leads to ever-greater complexity– Evolution produces creatures perfectly adapted to their environment– Evolution always promotes the survival of species–
One hundred and ninety-nine years after Charles Darwin was born, and 149 years after he published On the Origin of Species, some scientists say that the theory of evolution is