Posted on 08/09/2004 10:46:50 PM PDT by Arkinsaw
Forget waiting for ET to call -- the most likely place to find an alien message is in our DNA, according to an expert in Australia.
Professor Paul Davies, from the Australian Centre for Astrobiology at Macquarie University in Sydney, believes a cosmic greeting card could have been left in every human cell.
The coded message would only be discovered once the human race had the technology to read and understand it.
Writing in New Scientist magazine, Davies said the idea should be considered seriously.
For more than 40 years astronomers have been sweeping the skies with radio telescopes hoping to catch a signal from an alien civilisation.
So far the search has been in vain. But Davies believes it is wrong to assume that extraterrestrials who may be hundreds of millions of years ahead of us technologically will have chosen to communicate by radio.
Leaving artefacts for humans to find once they are sufficiently evolved -- like the obelisk in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey -- might be a more attractive strategy, he said.
But ensuring the survival of such an artefact over possibly millions of years would be difficult.
A better solution would be to incorporate information into the human genome, allowing it to be copied and maintained over immense periods of time.
One way to do this might be to deliver alien viruses which could infect cells with message-laden DNA, said Davies.
Scientists have recently discovered large sequences of "junk" DNA that contain no genes and appears to be very stable.
"If ET has put a message into terrestrial organisms, this is surely where to look," said Davies.
A computer could be used to find obvious attention-grabbing patterns within these stretches of DNA, he said. If a sequence of junk units of DNA were displayed as an array of pixels on a screen and produced a simple image "the presumption of tampering would be inescapable".
The DNA code was easily big enough to contain a decent-sized novel or a potted history of the rise and fall of an alien civilisation.
Davies added: "Trying to second-guess alien communication strategies is fraught with uncertainty, so we should try everything we can afford. The truth may be out there somewhere. Or it could be a lot closer to home." – Sapa-DPA
I read my DNA once, but all it contained was John Kerry's Secret Plan To Win The War On Terror.
eeekk... more sleeper cells!!
I knew Mulder and Scully were looking in the wrong place!
alien teach me english :}}}}}}}}}}} I need to
It says: "To Serve Man". ;)
(reference to a Twilight Zone episode. Hint: when people decode it, it turns out, it's a cookbook!)
Yea Professor Davies I saw that episode of "Star Trek Next Generation" too
"Eat More Fish"
And what if the message is an equivalent of a street graffiti? (say, a mild, printable one)?
God left His calling card in our DNA when He created us.
So long, and thanks for all the fish.
LOL, no wonder it is often pointed out that a "PhD" is just like a "B.S." degree, only Piled higher and Deaper! This guy may have a list of credentials, awards and publications as long as your arm, but good grief, what an utter maroon!
(No, no, Dr. Davies, that shoe goes on the other left foot.)
--Boot Hill
But isn't that why we have wives?
They quietly take us aside and whisper sweetly in our ear: "Honey, you know I love you, but if you tell the whole world that you believe your DNA contains a secret alien message, I'm taking the kids and leaving you."
--Boot Hill
Yeah, and liberals are His practical joke...
(I can't believe I know that. Holy cats, I may be a geek.)
The message reads:
Howard Stern Rocks!
Imus sucks!!!!!!!!
Or, "Ba-ba-booey."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.