Bios Genesis Session Report

One version of how life began, at least according to a game…

Notes and Disclaimers:

1. For an earlier description of the Bios Genesis boardgame, read this earlier blog post.

2. The pictures of these components represent the old artwork with print-and-play components. Pieces were cobbled from a different boardgame. The actual game will have different artwork and components.

3. I apologize for the poor photo quality. I am notoriously bad at taking photos and my hands shake.

Over 4 billion years ago, our moon was formed by the Theia Big Whack. This was followed by an active T Tauri phase with solar flare emissions. The only possible place for life to have started was deep in the ocean at hydrothermal vents. It was an inhospitable environment.

But then oceans started to form as comets and other impactors outside the solar system brought water, organic molecules, and simple molecules that would form the early atmosphere. Now there were more places where life might take a hold. Green rust fumarole may provide sites for primitive catalytic activity. Clay mounds may have provided sites for the templating of nucleobases, the fore-runner to DNA. Autocatalytic cycles begin to produce molecules that may be incorporated into early metabolism and primitive genetic information storage.

As the earth moved in to the Archean era, plate tectonics shut down resulting in a tropical waterworld. This is where life first appeared in the form of proto-enzyme marine bacteria, utilizing amyloidal peptides.

The first supercontinent Vaalbara breaks up opening up other possible locations where new life may take hold. The formation of Mars-like Paleo Ocean and Alkaline Seeps begin to show activity. A new microorganism appears in the shallow alkaline waters, iron sulfur coastal bacteria with transition metal sulfide catalysts forging a primitive metabolism reducing carbon dioxide to acetate. RNA polymerase makes its first appearance in these bacteria, but they will not be robust enough to survive the travails to come.

The formation of supercontinent Ur leads to two new organisms, the extraterrestrial coenzyme Martian bacteria from the paleo-ocean, and GARD marine bacteria evolved from the clay mound – a robust self-replicator utilizing the more flexible glycolic nucleic acid (GNA) enclosed in a lipid bilayer.

As oxygen starts to increase 3.3 billion years ago, methane in the atmosphere is replaced by carbon dioxide, a weaker greenhouse gas, leading to a Huronian Snowball – a long and cold ice age. The new microorganisms however stay robust and even evolve new features. Superoxide dismutase makes its appearance in the Martian bacteria, while the GARD bacteria engulf another organism leading to a symbiotic relationship. Chloroplasts appear and more oxygen is released into the atmosphere. Parasitism begins as phospholipid parasites enter the scene infecting the Martian bacteria.

Sea temperatures start to increase as earth emerges from its cold spell. A large release of methane is belched from the oceans into the atmosphere. More oxygen is released and the atmosphere begins to warm up. The organisms that are able to withstand these changes continue to thrive, but in doing so more oxygen is released. Cytoplasmic streaming and bacteriorhodopsin further pollute the atmosphere leading to the demise of the Martian and iron-sulfur coastal bacteria.

After slowly evolving for almost 800 million years, the first macroorganisms appear. Brachiopod lifeforms with superior genetic fitness make the leap to multicellularity, thus ushering in the Proterozoic age.

As continental drift disrupts the thermohaline circulation, there is an ocean overturn causing an inversion of the surface waters with the hypoxic deeper water. New organisms appear. A chemiosmotic coastal bacteria evolves from a radioactive beach and ferrous ion marine bacteria emerge from the hydrothermal vents. The latter go on to quickly develop a rhodopsin eyespot while simultaneously polluting the atmosphere further with more oxygen causing the demise of other organisms. They then evolve into flatworms as an orbital bobbing events resulting in exposure of the earth to cosmic rays and supernova debris. This is followed by a giant impactor burning a hole in the ozone layer. The hot spell is replaced by a cold spell as earth goes into an ice age megadrought. All possible protected refugia where new life might take hold disappears. The ferrous ion bacteria evolve into Flatworms. Will they and the Brachiopods survive and evolve?

Without new spaces for life to take hold, parasitism becomes rife as new microorganisms try to find habitats in which they can thrive. There is competition for hosts as parasites strive for access to hosts.

The Mackenzie Flood Basalts lead to an opening for new life amidst tholin storm clouds. Life quickly takes hold as bacteria based on a fullerene template evolve very, very rapidly into more complex life with a nerve net and chemiosmotic respiration eventually reaching the ancestor to seaweeds. As the oceans rust out, more life is able to grab hold of interplanetary dust. These phosphoric Martian bacteria quickly develop the Calvin cycle to fix carbon dioxide. It seems that life has successfully taken hold on our planet as the Lamp Shells evolve into Snails!

End game scores in this four player game:

·      Blue (Genes player): L=6+2 (Seaweed), L=13+12 (Snails), T=1 (extinct organisms), total = 34 points

·      Green (Energy player): L=10+12 (Flatworms), E=1+2 (endosymbiont), T=1 (extinct organisms), total = 26 points

·      Yellow (Specificity player): B=6 (phosphoric bacteria), P=4 (malaria parasite), T=1 (extinct organisms), total = 11 points

·      Red (Protein player): P=2 (prion parasite), E=2+2 (endosymbiont), T=2 (extinct organisms), total = 8 points