Alien Life Discovery May Prompt Rethinking of Faith

With the help of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and dimethyl disulfide (DMDS) have been detected in the atmosphere of an exoplanet—compounds that on Earth are produced solely through biological processes. This suggests that the planet very likely harbors at least microbial life.

In 2022, the James Webb Telescope also detected methane and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of the planet K2-18 b, which in itself could indicate the possibility of life. The two newly discovered chemicals reinforce this possibility, although their presence alone is still not enough to confirm the discovery of life with certainty.

It is clear that research on planet K2-18 b will receive funding following these observations. Therefore, it is likely that within a reasonably short time—just a few years—we may finally find out whether life on Earth is truly unique in the universe.

If that turns out not to be the case, it would have enormous implications for human life on Earth as well. This is because all religions that include a creation story would be forced to re-evaluate their doctrines — and perhaps even admit that we humans may not be quite as unique among the beings of the universe as we’ve been accustomed to believing.

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Microbial solution to malnutrition?

According to Unicef, more than 10 million children are at risk for starving in East Africa. The causes include drought, increasing food prices and escalation of armed conflicts.

That is not anything new, as probably we all remember previous episodes of famine in eastern Africa. What is new, however, is a finding of new means to reduce the consequences of food shortage. 

That development was reviewed in the Proceedings of the National Academy of the USA. According to that, a unique mix of foods such as peanuts and bananas supported the growth of age-appropriate microbes and helped to restore the health of malnourished toddlers—and the outcome was more effective at improving their health than standard supplements.

The review also reported that offering plant-based diets high in fiber, and diets high in fermented foods such as kombucha and kefir to kids - and also their microbes - had positive effects to their health after periods of serious malnutrition. As an outcome, they increased the growth and intellectual development of children.

Most interestingly, when the researchers fed malnourished toddlers with a special food supplement twice a day for three months, the children gained height and weight in patterns similar to their healthy peers. That was different form the standard treatments.

Overall, the recent developments are encouraging, and may lead to new ways to save children´s lives in eastern Africa and elsewhere where malnutrition occurs. That could probably also reduce the number of people searching for better life in western countries in Europe and North America, and therefore help in avoiding risks of instability caused by a collision of different cultures seen e.g. in Sweden.

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World oceans are filled with previously unknown viruses

COVID-19 pandemic has been ongoing for ca. 1,5 years now. It started when a new RNA virus SARS-CoV-2 learned to reproduce in humans, and to efficiently transmit between different people. Furthermore, the pandemic has had several waves due to rapid evolution of the virus from the original form to ever increasing variants with more and more efficient transmission between people.

The pandemic underlined the dangers of new viruses. The human immune systems are not prepared for their attacks and neither has evolution prepared our genes to resist their effects. As a result, such a virus may be life threatening and kill millions and millions of people.

Therefore it was interesting to read about new research showing, that oceans of the world are full of unknown RNA viruses. And not only new versions of the kinds of virus types previously known, but completely unknown virus groups rooting in the earliest history of the life itself.

These new viruses are not causing diseases of humans, but mostly multiply in lower eukaryotes, bacteria and archaea. In doing that, these viruses affect evolution of their host organisms, affect marine community dynamics, speed up the cycles of matter in the biosphere and evolve themselves.

It remains to be seen, how the research described above affects practical human life. It is, however, clear that this piece of curiously driven science affects considerably the worldview of virologists and microbiologists and adds to their creativity towards new research projects. 

History has shown that such a cumulative increase of understanding is the basic value of the scientific inquiry. Any piece of new knowledge may ultimately lead to useful practical applications. And that has raised the western part of the world developmentally above rest of the human cultures.  

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