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From: ethan@ut-emx.UUCP (Ethan Tecumseh Vishniac)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,sci.astro,sci.philosophy.tech
Subject: Re: DNA for interstellar messages
Summary: biosphere aggression and Sir Hoyle
Message-ID: <3916@ut-emx.UUCP>
Date: 6 Jul 88 14:54:10 GMT
References: <2743@bath63.ux63.bath.ac.uk> <2244@ur-tut.UUCP>
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas
Lines: 31

In article <2244@ur-tut.UUCP>, powi@ur-tut (Peter Owings) writes:
> In article <2743@bath63.ux63.bath.ac.uk> bs_wab@ux63.bath.ac.uk (Bains) writes:
... A bunch of stuff about using DNA as a kind of replicating message
carrier.
> >Has anyone a) come across this paper before or b) come across similar
> >ideas anywhere else?
> >

First, it seems to me that dropping a replicating bit of DNA into someone
else's biosphere is indeed a message of sorts...like dropping a bomb on
their house.  Regardless of contents it is an extremely hostile act.

> 	Well, I haven't heard anything about this paper, but one scientist
> not far from you takes this kind of thing very seriously.  I was fortunate
> enough to have several conversations with Sir Fred Hoyle when he visited
> the University of Rochester.  If there is anyone who has written about 
> stuff like "Bacteria From Space", Sir Fred has.  You might try looking at
> a book called _Grains_to_Bacteria_.  The only problem with this book is
> that it is very technical, going into spectral observations of interstellar
> particles.

Hmm.... there is one other problem with the book.  Almost all experts on
the interstellar medium (actually all but Hoyle and Wickramsinghe) consider
their interpretation of the spectral features to be ludicrous.
It's not my field, but the criticisms I've heard sounded devastating.

-- 
 I'm not afraid of dying     Ethan Vishniac, Dept of Astronomy, Univ. of Texas
 I just don't want to be     {charm,ut-sally,ut-ngp,noao}!utastro!ethan
 there when it happens.      (arpanet) ethan@astro.AS.UTEXAS.EDU
    - Woody Allen            (bitnet) ethan%astro.as.utexas.edu@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU