Imagine a universe where species from faraway planets turn biological evolution upside down, and make entire galaxies prolific fields of their research. What would their discoveries look like?
This is what Cosmic biodiversity, my new set of science fiction tales, tries to sketch out. Born out of an evolution course that I took, I hope these writings may lighten up the imagination of young students regarding evolution and biology in general.
Kepler-22b.
Since kindergarten, Steve Cloud felt the unanimous call that all Paleontologists feel during their childhood: the intrinsic attachment to his dinosaur collection and the unfathomable question of why they had gone extinct.
As Steve grew older, his curious mind didn’t forget his infantile connection to the eras of the past, and during high school he researched thoroughly the origin of life, discovered the works of Darwin, and read in its entirety the “Origin of Species.”
Based on his careful analysis of the tree of life, and finding the similitude of physical characteristics between organisms of very different species, Steve sustained hot debates with his professors who, at the time, had to teach both the evolutionary and creationist theories. To him, the evolutionary route to biodiversity was clear as water, but he failed to deliver his message due to the lack of experience in the biological field.
So he went ahead and grasped the content he was so desperately looking for.
He betrayed his old-grown Paleontologist passion, seduced by a much more beautiful lover: DNA. This molecule was to him the definitive answer to show the world the truthfulness of evolution, and so he joined Berkeley’s Graduate Program in Evolutionary Biology after completing his undergrad studies.
He loved it: he had found a niche for his ideas, and surrounded himself with the profoundly analytical knowledge he needed to convince the world of the veracity of his arguments. Soon enough he nicknamed himself “Stevo,” as the convergence between “Steve & evolution,” and was an active member in organizations countering creationism at schools in the USA.
Why did he do so?
Simply because Stevo had discovered long ago that creationism and intelligent design are not scientific theories, as they are not supported by facts and evidence. There was then no reason to be taught in Science lessons at school. Moreover, the discredit that these ideologies give to established scientific facts promoted a society in which pastors and priests were assuming the roles of pseudoscientists. For Stevo, faith wasn’t going to give an answer to the origins of our life, but Science would.
Before graduating, Stevo and his class organized a seminar to explain to the public the solidness of Evolutionary theory as a means to discovering the origin of our species other than spiritual beliefs. He sat down among the audience on a Monday morning, and allowed himself to enjoy the talk of Dr. Blanski, one of the most prestigious Palentologists in the world.
“The fossil record is a window to our past. Continuous analysis if this record is vital to our understanding of how life started in the primitive atmosphere of the Earth, and how by small and big changes this life has expanded itself all over the globe, displaying the richness of the variation that we can now see.”
By the end of the seminar, a single girl raised her left hand to ask a question. Her deadly serious face made Stevo uncomfortable for a second. She was most likely one of those hyper-religious fanatics.
“How can you explain the sudden burst of animal diversity during the Cambrian period, followed by a meager abundance of variation afterwards?”
Stevo was surprised. At least someone inside the room was carefully analyzing the presented data, dwelling into the implications of that sacred knowledge. He drew a smile of satisfaction on his face.
“It is one of the biggest questions in the field,” Dr. Blanski replied, “but I have to admit we still have a poor understanding of the mechanisms that lead to such amazing phenotypical variation. But to give you some insight, we think that the genomes of the organisms at the time were still not ‘consolidated,’ meaning that they could explore the mutational landscape without much compromise at that moment. It is afterwards that the genomes would be shaped by forces of adaptation and drift. ”
“Or God,” the girl replied. “I find it quite interesting that despite you do not want to believe in Creationism and Intelligent Design, you are eager to defend theories for which data is incomplete, such as the fossil record.” The girl stood up from her seat and headed towards the exit. “God is much more intelligent than what you think, gentlemen, and He will surely leave you in the darkness for trying to explain that which He only knows.” She opened the door and left the room, buried in sepulchral silence.
The remaining public stared at Dr. Blanski, who cheerfully ended his talk. “We, of course, cannot convince you to abandon your faith, but we only want to show you the other side of reality.”
Stevo returned home, hopeless. Long years of work in the Biological field were nothing compared to the centuries of cultural slavery imposed into mankind by religion. That single girl had made him loose a big part of his motivation, and most certainly it’d take him a while to recover. The deeply imprinted ignorance inside the brain of society was too much for a single person to delete.
He turned on the TV, sat in his couch, and started to daydream what would be the definitive answer to convince people of the occurrence of Evolution. He fell asleep. He time-travelled to the origin of Earth, to the bottom of the endless ocean, the enormous cauldron of chemicals were life had started to shine 3.5 billion years ago. He dissolved himself in the cauldron, and cautiously watched his cells spread towards the horizon, transforming themselves into little plants and animals, grouping into bigger bodies, living to the compass of the fluctuations in heat, light, and even sound. He watched the passage from trilobites to dinosaurs, to reptiles, to birds, to mammals, to primates and humans. He was a living witness of what he had learned during his studies: the wondrous chain of the evolution of life.
He woke up in tears, and for a brief moment his mind expanded towards the universe to receive the greatest of the ideas ever conceived. He dialed a number on his cell phone, and waited patiently to get a response.
“Dr. Blanski, it’s Stevo, sorry for the late call, but I have a great idea in mind. Do you still collaborate with Dr. Sorella at NASA? Yes? Great. This will sound crazy, but it’ll prove once and for all our point: let’s start the synthetic evolution of a microorganism on Kepler-22b.”
