Isaac Scientific Publishing

Advances in Astrophysics

Intelligent Messages in Bacterial DNA – a Sequel to SETI?

Download PDF (293.6 KB) PP. 1 - 5 Pub. Date: February 25, 2021

DOI: 10.22606/adap.2021.61001

Author(s)

  • N. Chandra Wickramasinghe*
    Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology, University of Buckingham, UK; Centre for Astrobiology, University of Ruhuna, Matara, Sri Lanka; National Institute of Fundamental Studies, Kandy, Sri Lanka; Institute for the Study of Panspermia and Astroeconomics, Gifu, Japan
  • Gensuke Tokoro
    Institute for the Study of Panspermia and Astroeconomics, Gifu, Japan
  • Robert Temple
    History of Chinese Science and Culture Foundation Conway Hall, London, UK

Abstract

It is proposed that the future trajectory of SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) and our exploration of alien planets and alien intelligence could be to consider the possibility of receiving and transmitting coded messages embedded as DNA inserts in bacteria and/or viruses. Physical space-travel and ambitions of space colonisation may well give way to a new era of “cultural” microbial colonisation of our galaxy.

Keywords

SETI, panspermia, coded DNA, cultural colonisation

References

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[2] Hoyle, F. & Wickramasinghe, N.C. 1981. Comets—A vehicle for panspermia, in Comets and the origin of life (ed. C. Ponnamperuma) D. Reidel (reprinted as Astrophys. Space Sci., 268, 333, 1999).

[3] Crick, F. H.; Orgel, L. E. (1973). "Directed panspermia". Icarus. 19 (3): 341–346.

[4] Erlick, Y. and Zielinski, D., 2017. DNA fountain enables robust and efficient storage architecture, Science, 355, 950

[5] Organick, L., Chen, Y., Dumas Ang, S. et al. 2020. Probing the physical limits of reliable DNA data retrieval. Nat Commun 11, 616 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14319-8

[6] Wickramasinghe, J., Wickramasinghe, N.C., and Napier, W., 2010. Comets and the Origin of Life (World Scientific Publisher, Singapore)

[7] Wickramasinghe, N.C., Maganarachchi, D., Temple, R. et al. 2020, The Search for Bacteria and Viruses in the Stratosphere, Ad.Ap.5(2)

[8] Harris, M.J., Wickramasinghe, N.C., Lloyd, D., Narlikar, J.V., Rajaratnam, P., Turner, M.P., Al-Mufti, S., Wallis, M.K. & Hoyle, F. 2001. The detection of living cells in stratospheric samples, Proc SPIE 4495, 192–198.

[9] Zubrin, R., 2017. Interstellar Communication Using Microbial Data Storage: Implications for SETI, J.British Interplanetary Soc. 70, 163-174