Where evolution falls short

[Hey Bubu]

Horoscope enthusiasts will be happy to hear that a grand cosmic force does indeed seem to be responsible for controlling the direction of all life on Earth. However, this grand cosmic cycle has more to do with extinction than finding a tall, handsome stranger.

Research has revealed that the rise and fall of species on Earth seems to be driven by the undulating motions of our solar system as it travels through the Milky Way. Some scientists believe that this cosmic force may offer the answer to some of the biggest questions in our Earth’s biological history—especially where evolution has fallen short.

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley found that marine fossil records show that biodiversity increases and decreases based on a 62-million-year cycle. At least two of the Earth's great mass extinctions-the Permian extinction 250 million years ago and the Ordovician extinction about 450 million years ago-correspond with peaks of this cycle, which can't be explained by evolutionary theory.

Early last year, a team of researchers at the University of Kansas came up with an out-of-this-world explanation for the phenomenon. Their idea hinges upon the fact that stars move through space and sometimes rush headlong through galaxies, or approach closely enough to cause a brief cosmic tryst.

Our own star moves toward and away from the Milky Way's center, and also up and down through the galactic plane. One complete up-and-down cycle takes 64 million years- suspiciously close to the Earth's biodiversity cycle.

Once the researchers independently confirmed the biodiversity cycle, they then proposed a novel mechanism whereby which the Sun's galactic travels is causing it.

It’s no secret that the Milky Way is being gravitationally pulled toward a massive cluster of galaxies, called the Virgo Cluster, which is located about 50 million light years away. Adrian Melott and his colleague Mikhail Medvedev, speculate that as the Milky Way rushes towards the Virgo Cluster, it generates a so-called bow shock in front of it that is similar to the shock wave created by a supersonic jet.

"Our solar system has a shock wave around it, and it produces a good quantity of the cosmic rays that hit the Earth. Why shouldn't the galaxy have a shock wave, too?" Melott asks.

The galactic bow shock is only present on the north side of the Milky Way's galactic plane, because that is the side facing the Virgo Cluster as it moves through space, and it would cause superheated gas and cosmic rays to stream behind it, the researchers say. Normally, our galaxy's magnetic field shields our solar system from this "galactic wind." But every 64 million years, the solar system's cyclical travels take it above the galactic plane.

"When we emerge out of the disk, we have less protection, so we become exposed to many more cosmic rays," Melott has said.

The boost in cosmic-ray exposure may have a direct effect on Earth's organisms, according to paleontologist Bruce Lieberman. The radiation would lead to higher rates of genetic mutations in organisms or interfere with their ability to repair DNA damage. In this way, the process could lead to new species while killing off others.

Cosmic rays are also associated with increased cloud cover, which could cool the planet by blocking out more of the Sun's rays. They also interact with molecules in the atmosphere to create nitrogen oxide, a gas that eats away at our planet's ozone layer, which protects us from the Sun's harmful ultraviolet rays.

Richard Muller, one of the UC Berkeley physicists who co-discovered the cycle, said Melott and his colleagues have come up with a plausible galactic explanation for the biodiversity cycle.

If future studies confirm the galaxy-biodiversity link, it would force scientists to broaden their ideas about what can influence life on Earth. "Maybe it's not just the climate and the tectonic events on Earth," Lieberman said. "Maybe we have to start thinking more about the extraterrestrial environment as well."

Posted by Rebecca Sato.

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog...re-a-milk.html

[HarveytheRabbit]

That's interesting, but how does it challenge anything in evolution? Seems to me that if it's true, it supports the evolution of species by altering the gene pool and whether or not successful genes are passed down.

Just because it changes the genes that are being inherited, doesn't mean that the process of natural selection as a whole is changed.

[Dionysos]

I was going to guess 'Alabama'.

[Keith P]

Hokey hokey whoo,
mistaking science for new age doodey doo.

[BradH]

tl;dr

This should go in A&P. It's way too much thinking and reading and stuff for UB. lol

[ONE FM]

Here's some evolution for ya..

[MattM]

That's kinda interesting I guess. There's nothing really hokey about the galaxy undergoing flucuations in space, makes perfect sense. They say if the planet shifted just a few degrees, that the world would be much much different - so presuming that is true, then what happens if the whole galaxy shifts around?

[Gaylord Focker]

I still am not sure why people who believe in God cant believe in a physical evolution.


Im not being a smart ass, im really curious. Explain. I think of evolution as the physical explanation of God.... the big bang so to speak. Nowhere in the theory of evolution does it un-exist God, it just never really mentions it. So in my mind, it makes sense that evolution is the physical growth of what was given to us by what I call **bulletproof vest on** God.

Flame or explain. Either will suffice =) Thanks.

[PETA]

Originally Posted by Hey Bubu

Horoscope enthusiasts will be happy to hear that a grand cosmic force does indeed seem to be responsible for controlling the direction of all life on Earth. However, this grand cosmic cycle has more to do with extinction than finding a tall, handsome stranger.

Research has revealed that the rise and fall of species on Earth seems to be driven by the undulating motions of our solar system as it travels through the Milky Way.

So it isn't God. It is solar system movement. Let's investigate that claim shall we

If one is willing to entertain the existence of God in the first place then the disqualification of God by your author is a logical fallicy.

If one doesn't believe in God then it is a superfluous comment. No shit the universe wasn't created from the bowel movement of a cosmic dog.

If one does believe in God then it completely misstates the nature of God. Well, if God exists author, you mean to say that natural forces of the universe he created are doing things that he did not start and cannot stop? This fundamentally misstates the nature of God. God is that thing no greater than whioch can be conceived. I can conceive of a God that greated the universe that's drifting around. Therefore, being greater than that solar system it is entirely withing reason to suggest that the solar system would not only be non-existent w/out God but it wouldn't move w/out God and nothing would be evolving on it without God.

Originally Posted by Gaylord Focker

I still am not sure why people who believe in God cant believe in a physical evolution.

You and the goddamn USA Today... ffs... there is zero reason to think natural science and God are incompatible.

There is NO ONE.... NO ONE (was that loud enough) that I know that I go to church with now or that I have ever gone to church with who thinks God and evolution are mutually exclusive.

[MattM]

Originally Posted by Gaylord Focker

I still am not sure why people who believe in God cant believe in a physical evolution.


Im not being a smart ass, im really curious. Explain. I think of evolution as the physical explanation of God.... the big bang so to speak. Nowhere in the theory of evolution does it un-exist God, it just never really mentions it. So in my mind, it makes sense that evolution is the physical growth of what was given to us by what I call **bulletproof vest on** God.

Flame or explain. Either will suffice =) Thanks.

Lots of people, including scientists, phds, mds, thousands of undergraduate and graduate science students believe in "God" and believe in evolution as well.

That gravity thing is a different story though :P.

[PETA]

Originally Posted by MattM

Lots of people, including scientists, phds, mds, thousands of undergraduate and graduate science students believe in "God" and believe in evolution as well.

That gravity thing is a different story though :P.

that's because gravity... like flouride... is nothing but a farce and a fraud perpetrated on us all in the name of social control bitches!!!! Its ok... I'm friendly with the rodents. They know what's up and won;t stand for this shit. One day they'll rise up and smash the cabal of wealthy jewish vampire banker masons who rule w/the Bildburgers and we'll have the last laugh