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Alien message 'may be in our DNA'
Mail and Guardian ^

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


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: aliens; countdowntochat; dna; et; godsgravesglyphs; helixmakemineadouble; xplanets
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To: Arkinsaw

Aliens must REALLY like pizza, could that be the galactic message?


61 posted on 10/25/2005 11:35:48 AM PDT by A CA Guy (God Bless America, God bless and keep safe our fighting men and women.)
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To: Arkinsaw

"Best before 2012"


62 posted on 10/25/2005 2:17:20 PM PDT by Betis70 (Every generation needs a new revolution)
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To: Arkinsaw
The coded message would only be discovered once the human race had the technology to read and understand it.

Why would anyone or anything leave coded DNA messages?

More likely, if there's any secret coded message it's "All Your Base Are Belong to Us".

It's pretty anthropomorphic of the author to look for personal coded dna messages, in fact it's downright silly.

63 posted on 10/25/2005 2:21:33 PM PDT by i.l.e. (Tagline - this space for sale....)
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To: KevinDavis

btt


64 posted on 10/26/2005 1:04:52 AM PDT by Marie (After 6 years of planning and working for the goal, I am now a TEXAN!!)
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To: SunkenCiv
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.
65 posted on 10/27/2005 5:27:17 AM PDT by vannrox (The Preamble to the Bill of Rights - without it, our Bill of Rights is meaningless!)
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To: Arkinsaw

Could skin tabs be some kind of message?


66 posted on 10/27/2005 5:33:34 AM PDT by jetson (throne)
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To: vannrox

Four character alphabet? Cuneiform-style compound characters? Unless it's a picture of a face or something along those lines, it may as well be written at the center of the Earth. :')


67 posted on 10/27/2005 6:53:51 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Down with Dhimmicrats! I last updated my FR profile on Sunday, August 14, 2005.)
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To: SunkenCiv

How about something like squares of the first few integers: 1, 4, 9, 16, 25 ...


68 posted on 10/27/2005 6:59:51 AM PDT by Junior (From now on, I'll stick to science, and leave the hunting alien mutants to the experts!)
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To: Junior

You're making it too hard. First you find a pattern, then you declare that you were looking for it. ID science in action.


69 posted on 10/27/2005 7:03:30 AM PDT by js1138 (Great is the power of steady misrepresentation.)
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To: KevinDavis; annie laurie; garbageseeker; Knitting A Conundrum; Viking2002; Ernest_at_the_Beach; ...
Note: this topic is from 8/09/2004.
See message 52 in this thread.
 
X-Planets
· join · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post new topic · subscribe ·
Google news searches: exoplanet · exosolar · extrasolar ·

70 posted on 03/28/2011 4:21:54 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Thanks Cincinna for this link -- http://www.friendsofitamar.org)
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To: Quix; martin_fierro

· GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach ·
· join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic · subscribe ·

 
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Note: this topic is from 8/09/2004. See message 52 in this thread.

Blast from the Past.

Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.
 

· History topic · history keyword · archaeology keyword · paleontology keyword ·
· Science topic · science keyword · Books/Literature topic · pages keyword ·


71 posted on 03/28/2011 4:22:30 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Thanks Cincinna for this link -- http://www.friendsofitamar.org)
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To: My2Cents

Alien message ‘may be in our DNA’
“Send more Chuck Berry.”

OK

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsp4VCbVvn4


72 posted on 03/28/2011 4:26:23 PM PDT by allmendream (Tea Party did not send the GOP to D.C. to negotiate the terms of our surrender to socialism.)
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To: jetson

For blind aliens?


73 posted on 03/28/2011 5:16:42 PM PDT by Jonty30
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To: Arkinsaw
I have had the same recurring dream for 50 years. I dream of the sky full of lights and patterns ( like holographic images) and jet like planes flying in all directions. The sound they made was erie, not like a regular jet. In the dream I'm always running trying to get away from what is coming. It is always the same dream. Weird.
74 posted on 03/31/2011 6:41:50 AM PDT by jetson
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