“Without viruses, our brains wouldn’t be as big.”

“Without viruses, our brains wouldn’t be as big.”

Burgos-based astrobiologist (and poet) Carlos Briones received the 2024 Spanish Confederation of Scientific Societies Prize for the Dissemination of Science. That is, in addition to studying the origin, evolution and possible spread of life in the Universe, the one that best explains it. In his latest book, On Board Your Curiosity (Critique), he advocates the importance of developing a critical spirit.

– Your critical spirit has taken you far. He wants RAE to redefine life.

– This is an unsatisfactory definition from a scientific point of view. In the light of recent advances in molecular biology, life is a chemical system capable of self-reproduction and evolution. A bacterium is a living creature.

-What is not?

– Although this topic is still discussed, the line of interaction between living and nonliving things is viruses. When they don’t have a cell to infect, they end up acting like a collection of molecules that disintegrate.

– Anyone who behaves alarmingly is the bird flu.

– The H5N1 virus is infecting more and more mammals. It has been found in dairy cows in the United States, in penguins in Antarctica, and there have also been cases of the disease in humans. Mortality rate is more than 40% (COVID was 3%). We have excellent veterinary control, but there are countries that cannot afford to have virologists and epidemiologists.

“However, he says that viruses are not just villains.

– More than half of our genome does not belong to Homo sapiens. It consists of fragments of other organisms – bacteria, fungi, archaea – that came through viruses and made us who we are.

– An example, please.

– About 170 million years ago, mammals nursed their young but laid eggs (this is still the case with platypuses and echidnas). Infection with a retrovirus, like AIDS, turned one of the membranes of the egg into one of the layers of the placenta. This made it possible to extend the pregnancy period. Without viruses, our brains wouldn’t be as big. We must be more humble.

– A blow to the ego.

– Copernicus took us from the center of the Universe; Darwin’s Center for Biology and genomic and microbiological data tell us that we are the sum of different microorganisms.

“And soon artificial intelligence will snatch the last scepter from us.”

– Intelligence is outsourced. I am for artificial intelligence that respects the rights and freedoms of people, but I am concerned about copyrights and deepfakes. This is why a critical spirit is necessary.

“He is waging a crusade against pseudoscience.”

“They are putting our lives at risk.” In 2018, I went to the clinic with my son for a throat infection, and the doctor prescribed homeopathy. I saved the recipe, filed a complaint, and posted a thread on Twitter that kicked up a lot of dust.

– These are also accusations against astrology.

– Since the astrologers of Babylon Nebuchadnezzar II divided the sky into 12 equal sectors of 30 degrees and assigned them the corresponding constellation, the angle of the Earth’s axis of rotation has shifted (a movement called precession), which has changed the dates on which all signs should begin. 95% of people were not born under the sign they believe in.

– He’s a party animal. What can you believe in?

–In the capabilities of our brain, which allows us to change the world for the better. When we analyzed the genomes, we saw that the claim that races exist is not true. Very few genes determine skin tone, and xenophobic discourse is based on this. Any machismo, fundamentalism and fanaticism can be dismantled rationally.

– However, is there life there?

– Zero, zero, zero. There is no evidence of life beyond Earth. At the moment we are alone in the Universe. An American scientist has suggested that some forms found in the meteorite ALH 84001 that fell from Mars were bacteria, but extraordinary suggestions require extraordinary evidence.

– Aren’t you upset by such a long wait?

– I work a lot in the field of molecular biology in extreme conditions on Earth, such as the Tinto River, where in principle there can be no life, but at a depth of about 600 meters there are communities of bacteria living happily, without light, without oxygen. There are threads of algae and fungi. The findings can be used to study adaptation beyond the planet and beyond life.