Abstract
Throughout his life, Fred Hoyle had a keen interest in evolution. He argued that natural selection by small, random change, as conceived by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace, could not explain either the origin of life or the origin of a new protein. The idea of natural selection, Hoyle told us, wasn't even Darwin's original idea in the first place. Here, in honour of Hoyle's analysis, I propose a solution to Hoyle's dilemma. His solution was life from space – panspermia. But the real key to understanding natural selection is `molecular biodiversity'. This explains the things Darwin missed – the origin of species and the origin of extinction. It is also a beautiful example of the mystery disease that afflicted Darwin for over 40 years, for which we now have an answer.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Baker, H., Errington, R.J. and Campbell, A.K.: 2002, Mathematical model predicts that calreticulin interacts with the endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ - ATPase, Biophys. J. 82, 582-590.
Blythe, E.: 1835, The Varieties of Animals, Magazine of Natural History.
Blythe, E.: 1837, Distinctions between Man and Animals, Magazine of Natural History.
Campbell, A.K.: 1994, Rubicon: The Fifth Dimension of Biology, Duckworth, London, pp. 304.
Campbell, A.K.: 1994, in: A.K. Campbell and L.J. Kricka (eds.), Bioluminescence and Chemiluminescence: Fundamental and Applied Aspects, Darwin and the glow-worm, Wiley, Chichester, pp. 392-396.
Campbell, A.K.: 1988, Chemiluminescence: Principles and Applications in Biology and Medicine, Horwood/VCH, Chichester and Weinheim, pp. 608.
Campbell, A.K.: 2003, Save those molecules - Molecular biodiveristy and life, J. Appl. Ecology 40, 193-203.
Campbell, A.K. and Matthews, S.B.: 2001, Lactose Intolerance and the MATHS Syndrome: What are They and how can I Cope, ISBN 0-9540866-0-0, Welston Press, Pembrokeshire.
Campbell, A.K. and Herring, P.J.: 1990, Imidazolopyrazine bioluminescence in copepods and other marine animals, Marine Biol. 104, 219-225.
Chambers, R.: 1844, 1969, Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, Leicester University Press, New York.
Colp, R.: 1977, To be an Invalid. The Illness of Charles Darwin, University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London.
Darwin, C.R.: 1859, 1st edition, 1868, 6th edition, The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, Murray, London.
Darwin, C.R.: 1858, Essay and letter of evolution, Proc. Linn. Soc. July 1st.
Dudd, S.N. and Evershed, R.P.: 1998, Direct demonstration of milk as an element of archeological economies, Science 282, 1478-1481.
Hoyle, F.: 1983, The Intellegent Universe. A New View of Creation and Evolution, Joseph, London.
Hoyle, F.: 1987, 1999, Mathematics of Evolution, Acorn Enterprises, Tenessee.
Lack, D.: 1948, Darwin's Finches, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Matthews, S.B. and Campbell, A.K.: 2000a, When sugar is not so sweet, Lancet 355, 1309.
Matthews, S.B. and Campbell, A.K.: 2000b, Neuromuscular symptoms associated with lactose intolerance, Lancet 356, 511.
Sala Newby, G.B., Kendall, J.M., Jones, H., Taylor, K.M., Badminton, M.N., Llewellyn, D.H. and Campbell, A.K.: 1999, Bioluminescent and chemiluminescent indicators for molecular signalling and function in living cells, in: Fluorescent Probes for Biological Function, 2nd edition, Ed Mason, WT. Academic Press, London, pp. 251-272.
Sala-Newby, G. and Campbell, A.K.: 1994, Stepwise removal of the C-terminal amino acids in firefly luciferase results in graded loss of activity, Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1206, 155-160.
Sala-Newby, G.B., Badminton, M.N., Evans, W.H., George, C.H., Jones, H.E., Kendall, J.M., Ribeiro, A.S. and Campbell, A.K.: 2000, Targetted bioluminescent indicators in living cells, Methods in Enzymol. 305, 478-498.
Wallace, A.R.: 1858, On the tendency of varieties to depart indefinitely from the original type. Proc. Linn Soc 1st July.
Wallace, A.R.: 1889, Darwinism. An exposition of the theory of natural selection with some of its applications.
Watkins, N.J. and Campbell, A.K.: 1993, Requirement of the C-terminal proline residue for stability of the Ca2+ - activated photoprotein aequorin, Biochem. J. 292, 181-185.
Waud, J., Sala-Newby, G.B. and Campbell, A.K.: 1996, Engineering the C-terminus of firefly luciferase as an indicator of covalent modification of proteins, Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1292, 89-98.
Waud, J., Bermudez-Fajardo, A., Sudadhaharan, T., Jefferies, J., Jones, A. and Campbell, A.K.: 2001, Measurement of caspases using chemiluminescence resonance energy transfer, Biochem. J. 357, 687-697.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Campbell, A. What Darwin missed. Astrophysics and Space Science 285, 571–585 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025446122527
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025446122527