
Protein discovered inside a meteorite - _bpgl
https://phys.org/news/2020-03-protein-meteorite.html
======
rolph
A team of researchers from Plex Corporation, Bruker Scientific LLC and Harvard
University > has found evidence of < a protein inside of a meteorite.

there is a mismatch between the title of that article and the level of
confidence these researchers were expressing.

the preprint is here:

[https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.11688](https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.11688)

~~~
jessaustin
One of the cites at the link is a previous paper on similar investigations of
one of the same meteorites plus one other, that was published in 2015 in
_Meteoritics & Planetary Science_, a journal with a long publication history.
That paper is cited by two other papers from different authors. [0]

At some level, these researchers seem to be doing basic chemistry. Maybe
they're not characterizing the implications correctly or maybe they haven't
controlled contamination, but if proper research discovered extraterrestrial
protein it would probably generate papers that looked like these.

[0]
[https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=8914643017753968792...](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=8914643017753968792&as_sdt=5,26&sciodt=0,26&hl=en)

~~~
rolph
>> At some level, these researchers seem to be doing basic chemistry <<

what it looks like to me is that a couple just received a good research grant
set up a laboratory in started putting it to good use. we need to find these
polymers on samples that are still off world, or we need to be able to
demonstrate such polymerization in an environment mimmicking conditions off
planet.

~~~
jessaustin
"Basic" is not meant to be derogatory. They're chemists; that's what they
_should_ be doing. It would be more troubling if their results came from
"novel" chemistry.

------
shadowgovt
I need to make time to ask someone to ELI5 to me how this research is done
without contaminating the sample with terrestrial-originated protein. The
meteorite was on Earth for some time, and bacteria are staggeringly invasive
little bugs.

I believe they successfully avoid contamination, but I have no idea how.

~~~
rolph
sanitize a small sample then crack it open under cleanroom conditions to
obtain an assumed pristine sample.

[edit] This is the full pdf below, if you look at page 2, you will see how
they generated prepared and analyzed the sample

[https://arxiv.org/pdf/2002.11688](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2002.11688) [PDF]

and this is the meteoritic report for the subject:

[https://www.lpi.usra.edu/meteor/metbull.php?code=95](https://www.lpi.usra.edu/meteor/metbull.php?code=95)

the thing with structured peer review is that noone knows it all , and a team
of specialists [review commitee] are much more powerful than a team of
generalists, to the end of revealing any artefacts of procedure, or hair
splitting levels of knowledge regarding metalo-organic chemistry that could
explain abiotic process that would produce amino acid polymerization.

------
shartshooter
I read a comment on HN or Reddit a while back about how some molecules were
found in a meteorite that were left-handed where every molecule on earth is
right-handed or something to that extent.

If my memory serves it was as if molecules fit together like a lock and key
except this molecule's key/lock combo was inverted.

Apologies if I'm bungling it up but it felt as though it was significant. As
if the molecule found was unlike any molecule on earth due to its lock/key
orientation.

~~~
anorwell
I think the homochirality of amino acids might be what you're referring to:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chirality_(chemistry)#In_bioch...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chirality_\(chemistry\)#In_biochemistry)

"The origin of this homochirality in biology is the subject of much
debate.[12] Most scientists believe that Earth life's "choice" of chirality
was purely random, and that if carbon-based life forms exist elsewhere in the
universe, their chemistry could theoretically have opposite chirality.
However, there is some suggestion that early amino acids could have formed in
comet dust. In this case, circularly polarised radiation (which makes up 17%
of stellar radiation) could have caused the selective destruction of one
chirality of amino acids, leading to a selection bias which ultimately
resulted in all life on Earth being homochiral."

~~~
dekhn
I've also heard some scientists say that parity breaking could explain the
origin of homochirality. Personally, I'm happier with the "random chance"
hypothesis.

------
westmeal
Proponents of panspermia are pretty happy about this finding I bet.

~~~
qubex
To be perfectly honest, you’ve drawn my attention to an ambiguity I had never
before noticed: does panspermia’s hypothesis that “life” came from space
require that life arrive fully formed and functional, or does it advocate that
complex organic chemicals arrived from space and assembled on earth into a
working configuration?

I have always found the idea of panspermia to be a bit of a cop-out as it
totally sidesteps the problem of abiogenesis: it’s all fine and well to say
“life came from space” but you still need to explain how life arose in space
to begin with.

~~~
svachalek
It's only a cop-out if you try to use it to explain the origin of life in
general, not just on Earth.

Life arose very quickly on Earth, almost as soon as it was capable of
surviving, so it raises the interesting question: were we just lucky, or is it
easy to spawn life, or did it come from elsewhere? The answer creates very
different pictures for what Earth-like planets elsewhere in the galaxy
actually look like.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
I'm always confused by that. So there's only one form of life possible?
Otherwise life may have arisen before, been wiped out when Earth changed, and
life arose again. We may be just the latest in a long series of life forms.

~~~
dekhn
theoretically possible but there is no evidence to suggest this. Weighing the
various hypotheses, most people would suggest the "simpler" (fewer
wipeout/arise events) hypothesis, given the assumption that life arising is
considered very rare.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Because the earth remade itself several times. Any previous life would have
surely been erased. The assertion was that life arose just once. That's hard
to prove.

------
VT_Dude
Before we even get into the role of expert peer reviewers, does the article
pass basic tests of authenticity, let alone extraordinary claims requiring
extraordinary proof?

The third author of the referenced paper does have a page at Harvard, here:
[http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~mcgeoch/index.html](http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~mcgeoch/index.html)
where she says she is at the "Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology,
Harvard University" but she's not listed as faculty in that department here:
[https://www.mcb.harvard.edu/faculty/faculty-
profiles/](https://www.mcb.harvard.edu/faculty/faculty-profiles/)

Could be a student... but do a search for Malcolm. W. McGeoch, Sergei Dikler,
Julie E. M. McGeoch from Plex Corporation, Bruker Scientific LLC and Harvard
University

and you will start to wonder if these people even know their names have been
used in this article. Shame on phys.org for not calling the author for a quote
or doing any other legwork to convince me this is anything other than a UFO
hoax or the output of a paper-writing AI. It _could_ be, but ...journalist
please.

~~~
T-A
You can look up McGeoch, Julie here:

[https://www.directory.harvard.edu/](https://www.directory.harvard.edu/)

Associate of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology.

Previous papers on arxiv (just click the author name on the abstract page):

[https://arxiv.org/search/astro-
ph?searchtype=author&query=Mc...](https://arxiv.org/search/astro-
ph?searchtype=author&query=McGeoch%2C+J+E+M)

I am all for healthy skepticism, but insinuating a hoax based on an ad hominem
without even spending a few seconds to do a quick check is not.

------
MockObject
They believe that this meteorite is native to our solar system, so it's not a
candidate for panspermia from anywhere interesting.

~~~
aetherspawn
That’s probably what should interest us the most - the article says the
protein arrangement is previously unknown but functional (?).

------
DrOctagon
Crunchy on the outside, chewy protein center.

------
aldoushuxley001
Seems like this should be bigger news

~~~
gipp
It's a potentially pretty big deal for understanding extraterrestrial chemical
processes and estimating the likelihood of life, but to be clear this isn't
anything like actual evidence of alien life.

It's a bit of a stretch to call this a "protein" TBH. The protein part is
composed of only glycine, so there's really no information (e.g. DNA) required
to synthesize it, just glycine and a chemical environment that would cause it
to polymerize. The caps at either end are not protein components at all, as
the article mentions, and protein backbones on Earth are never cyclic afaik.

But, it's still a very complex organic molecule ofc, which is very significant
on its own, and its similarity to protein is evidence that protein-based life
could be more common.

------
lxmorj
Don’t build my app

------
naynay
just mix with all the ones that were already

------
rafaelvasco
Nothing to be surprised about. The seeds of Life are everywhere. Earth is just
a tiny microscopic point compared to the infinity of the Universe;

~~~
ouid
An observer observing themselves is not data.

