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We compiled 9,495 protein coding genes that were identified as horizontally transferred ...from bacteria, fungi, archaea and protists to metazoans.
These words introduce a review of science articles, published between 2000 and 2025, whose titles contained the keywords "Lateral Gene Transfer," "Horizontal Gene Transfer" and "metazoan." The papers and candidate genes were further culled by additinal criteria (illustration, left). Most of the transferred genes came from bacteria (red, below).
It was a meticulous, unusual, word-search project.
 A compendium of horizontal gene transfers in Metazoa, by Johnathan A. Spaulding and Janna L. Fierst, Scientific Data, in press 04 May 2026.
Admittedly, the criteria were very restrictive. Most HGT genes go unrecognized anyway. Besides, protein coding genes occupy only a small percentage of metazoan genomes. And, so far, the fraction of metazoan genomes that have been sequenced is tiny. To me, the study shows that the importance of HGT for eukaryotic evolution could ultimately prove far greater than people recognize today.
 Viruses: and Other Gene Transfer Mechanisms: lists thousands of examples.
 
Astrobiology v26, n3-4 [ToC], Bruce Damer and David Deamer, eds., Apr 2026 (restricted access.)
 Thanks, Bruce Damer, for a copy of your article.
The RNA World: and Other Origin-of-Life Theories has history and updtes.
Genome pioneer Craig Venter dies..., by Ewen Callaway, Nature, 30 Apr 2026.
Geobiology is "how Earth and life interact," says Andy Knoll, a founder of the field. His newest offering could serve as a textbook for the subject — there's that much information in it. But it is much more enjoyable than a textbook, because it includes lots of his personal reflections, experiences and interactions with colleagues. One early reader suggested it be published as a memoir.
Knoll begins by discussing the principal elements of life, and how they cycle through our world. Carbon is first, then Nitrogen and Phosphorus. Their "cycles" are complex, interwoven and worth knowing. To follow along, I occasionally got out Theodore Gray's The Elements. You don't have to. His analysis of Oxygen waits until Chapter 8, following his discussion of the origin-of-life. "Where did the first organisms come from?" he sensibly asks. Yet he does not mention panspermia, and the word is not listed in the index. Similarly, in noting that "amino acids have been detected in carbonaceous meteorites and even in interstellar space," he cites this as evidence that they can be made non-biologically. But there is a significant body of evidence suggesting that prebiotics in space are actually postbiotic. The ones in chondrites typically carry remnants of life's chirality. Knoll's usual rigor, investigative zeal and open-mindedness seem absent on this subject. Of course, I am presumptuous to criticize anything from a scientist of his stature. One of geobiology's advantages is its applicability to other planets and moons. Knoll is skeptical about life on Mars, okay. But I would love to hear his speculations about Titan, which he says is "perhaps the most interesting body in the solar system, save for Earth itself." It has an atmosphere about as thick as ours, dominated by Nitrogen, like ours, and it has abundant methane. I wonder if a story including life might explain Titan's environment. If geology, mineralogy, Gaia, climate change, ocean chemistry, Mars exploration, plate tectonics, volcanoes, history of life, and history of Earth interest you, you could learn a lot from Andy Knoll, and enjoy doing it. I know I did. Earth and Life: A Four Billion Year Conversation, by Andrew H. Knoll, Princeton University Press, 2026.
One way to investigate the opening question is to reconstruct the history of evolution with genomic sequences. The nucleotide sequence for a new genetic program should have predecessors. Can they be found? What story do they tell? This approach is rigorously pursued in open-access studies by two internatonal teams scrutinizing the rapid evolution of yeast "point" centromeres. A centromere is the segment of DNA that holds a pair of chromatids together and allows them to be pulled apart for reproduction. This function is unchanged in the course of the studies, so the evolved genetic programming is not overtly "new." Still, the observed genetic rearrangenments deserve attention. Adele Marston provides a helpful introduction to the subject:
One analysis is focussed on the rapid evolution of the point centromeres, while the complex kinetichore machinery that separates the chromatids changed very little. How did the two systems manage to remain compatible? Helsen et al. conclude that different variants of the centromere probably coexist until one is favored by selection.
Another team investigates the path from epigenetic and "proto-point" precursors to point centromeres in yeast. Their introduction concludes, "Comparative and phylogenetic analyses ...show how selfish elements can be co-opted to perform essential chromosomal functions."
The studies observe point mutations, optimization and "progressive" selection, so one might assume that ToE has been convincingly supported. It hasn't. Blocks of DNA have been inserted, deleted and rearranged, all following some logic that accidents don't explain. However, if existing genetic vocabulary is pieced together with genomic software analogous to software used by AI, the rearrangements can make sense. Testing Darwinism versus Cosmic Ancestry briefly describes three different tests.
Viruses have a huge repository existing genetic vocabulary and a means for installation.
 Metal Beam on Mars? NASA photo scrutinized by Brian Cory Dobbs and Jean Ward, 8-min YouTube, 14 Aug 2024.
Life on Mars! has more about a wide range of evidence for more primitive life there.
...thoroughly conscious ignorance... is the prelude to every real advance in science.
James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) was as influential as Newton or Einstein, according to The Man who Changed Everything, his biography by Basil Mahon. I first read it for its history of physics. Now I have reread it for its history of science. Polarized light was one of Maxwell's early interests. He employed it to reveal the stresses within transparent models of complex structures (a system still useful today.) His paper about it was poorly written, and he accepted that criticism. Ultimately he developed a style that is "authoritative, but fresh and informal." Occasionally he made algebraic mistakes! He made important contributions to color theory and statistical mechanics, but it was his discovery of the laws of electrodynamics that earned him a place in the pantheon of science — his four simple equations unifying elecricity and magnetism are revered like a sacred text. He had wrestled with the puzzle for years, trying various models, willing to start over if necessary. All the while, he admitted that the true nature of space is unknown, and the apparent dual nature of light would not be easily understood. Throughout his life, Maxwell was fallible, affable and undogmatic, as this biography makes clear. A pleasure to read, it is also instructive, and occasionally evocative. Illustrations include photos of Glenair, Maxwell's longtime Scottish home, in its heyday and, by 1991, in ruins. I recommend this book to everyone. The Man who Changed Everything: The Life of James Clerk Maxwell, by Basil Mahon, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., UK, 2003.
(226 total pages, 25 pages of endnotes, a bibligraphy of ~50 entries, and an index of >700 names and terms.)
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