Strange science 😦

[Fake Messiah]

Advanced alien civilizations could be communicating 'like fireflies' in plain sight, researchers suggest

Advanced alien civilizations may communicate via a series of flashing lights, similar to how fireflies do, a new paper hints. This would potentially make extraterrestrials much harder to spot if we continue to rely on our current observation techniques, the researchers argue.

However, while this thought experiment raises interesting questions about alien intelligence, it does not provide any evidence that these signals actually exist.

On Earth, fireflies communicate via a series of regularly repeating flashes caused by internal chemical reactions. These flashes are mainly used to find mates. But while these signals are simple, they do allow distinct firefly species to tell each other apart.

The researchers argue that similar flashing could be used as "here we are" signals by an alien civilization. And space is plentiful with repetitive bursts of light.

In the new paper, researchers analyzed the flashes of more than 150 pulsars — rapidly spinning, highly magnetized neutron stars that shoot out regular beams of electromagnetic radiation — as a proxy for what these signals may look like. And while they found no evidence of any artificial signals, they did note some similarities between the pulsars and firefly signals, and proposed ways of being able to detect future firefly-like flashes from other natural objects, like pulsars.

The study team argues that these signals could be more likely to evolve in long-lasting alien civilizations that progress past the need for widespread use of radio waves. A similar progression is already happening on Earth, where the use of communications satellites with more specific and concentrated radio signals is making our planet appear more "radio quiet" from afar, the researchers wrote.

And just because we may not naturally think to communicate in this way, it doesn't mean that other civilizations wouldn't, they added.

This is just one example of what non-human signals may look like, and the researchers encourage others to think outside of the anthropocentric box to come up with other ways that a non-human-like civilization could communicate.

https://www.livescience.com/space/extrat...rs-suggest

[Paleophyte]

Advanced alien civilizations could be communicating 'like fireflies' in plain sight, researchers suggest

Advanced alien civilizations may communicate via a series of flashing lights, similar to how fireflies do, a new paper hints. This would potentially make extraterrestrials much harder to spot if we continue to rely on our current observation techniques, the researchers argue.

However, while this thought experiment raises interesting questions about alien intelligence, it does not provide any evidence that these signals actually exist.

On Earth, fireflies communicate via a series of regularly repeating flashes caused by internal chemical reactions. These flashes are mainly used to find mates. But while these signals are simple, they do allow distinct firefly species to tell each other apart.

The researchers argue that similar flashing could be used as "here we are" signals by an alien civilization. And space is plentiful with repetitive bursts of light.

In the new paper, researchers analyzed the flashes of more than 150 pulsars — rapidly spinning, highly magnetized neutron stars that shoot out regular beams of electromagnetic radiation — as a proxy for what these signals may look like. And while they found no evidence of any artificial signals, they did note some similarities between the pulsars and firefly signals, and proposed ways of being able to detect future firefly-like flashes from other natural objects, like pulsars.

The study team argues that these signals could be more likely to evolve in long-lasting alien civilizations that progress past the need for widespread use of radio waves. A similar progression is already happening on Earth, where the use of communications satellites with more specific and concentrated radio signals is making our planet appear more "radio quiet" from afar, the researchers wrote.

And just because we may not naturally think to communicate in this way, it doesn't mean that other civilizations wouldn't, they added.

This is just one example of what non-human signals may look like, and the researchers encourage others to think outside of the anthropocentric box to come up with other ways that a non-human-like civilization could communicate.

https://www.livescience.com/space/extrat...rs-suggest

Ye gods that's dreadful. That isn't science. That's a sensationalized pop-sci article based on something uploaded to arXiv.

[Aoi Magi]

And just because we may not naturally think to communicate in this way, it doesn't mean that other civilizations wouldn't, they added.

I am of the strong opinion that no actual intelligent civilisation would initiate random contact, unless they are absolutely suicidal, and yes, we humans are a suicidal species

[Fake Messiah]

Let's clone Leonardo!

Scholars on a quixotic quest to identify Leonardo da Vinci’s DNA achieve a milestone

Gonzalez-Juarbe’s swabs may have captured a biological clue. In a remarkable milestone in a decadelong odyssey, he and other members of the Leonardo da Vinci DNA Project (LDVP), a global scientific collective, report in a paper posted today on bioRxiv that they have recovered DNA from Holy Child and other objects—and some may be from Leonardo himself.

The preprint concludes that Y chromosome sequences from the artwork and from a letter penned by a cousin of Leonardo both belong to a genetic grouping of people who share a common ancestor in Tuscany, where Leonardo was born. The data suggest the DNA on the artwork could be Leonardo’s, but it’s far from proof, says geneticist Charles Lee, whose team at the Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine analyzed samples from Holy Child. “Establishing unequivocal identity … is extremely complex,” agrees LDVP’s David Caramelli, an anthropologist and ancient DNA specialist at the University of Florence (UNIFI).

That’s because scientists can’t verify the sequences against any DNA samples known to have come from Leonardo himself. His burial site was disturbed early in the 19th century, and he had no direct descendants. Circumstantial evidence that the DNA fragments are Leonardo’s could come from other LDVP research: Y chromosome sampling of recently identified living descendants of his father, and efforts to extract DNA from tombs where his relatives are buried. But identifying Leonardo’s DNA is “about as hard a target there is” in ancient DNA research, says S. Blair Hedges, an evolutionary biologist at Temple University.

Identifying Leonardo’s DNA could not only help pin down the origin of disputed pieces such as Holy Child, but might point to biological traits underpinning his genius, although some scholars resist chalking up his abilities to his genes. “I tend to explain Leonardo more as the result of a favorable cultural and economic context,” says Leonardo expert Domenico Laurenza, an art historian at the University of Cagliari.

Yet some of what made Leonardo unique seems rooted in biology. His extraordinary ability to capture subtle shifts of light and motion, for example, has long hinted at exceptional visual acuity. LDVP aspires to one day find genetic variants that could account for it, says Gonzalez-Juarbe, who works at the University of Maryland. “Our hope is to open a door to explaining what was so unique about the smartest guy in history.”

https://www.science.org/content/article/...inci-s-dna