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From: ralf@b.gp.cs.cmu.edu (Ralf Brown)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,sci.astro,sci.philosophy.tech
Subject: Re: DNA for interstellar messages
Message-ID: <2148@pt.cs.cmu.edu>
Date: 2 Jul 88 19:21:19 GMT
References: <2743@bath63.ux63.bath.ac.uk>
Sender: netnews@pt.cs.cmu.edu
Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, CS/RI
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In article <2743@bath63.ux63.bath.ac.uk> bs_wab@ux63.bath.ac.uk (Bains) writes:
}Around the end of my undergraduate career I remember reading a paper
}on the possibility of using DNA sequences for interstellar communication.

}Has anyone a) come across this paper before or b) come across similar
}ideas anywhere else?

I remember reading (circa 1981/82) about a virus whose DNA had a sequence
which coded for THREE different proteins, depending on whether one started
reading at base N, base N+1, or base N+2.  (there are three bases per amino
acid of the protein).

One of the suggested explanations was that it might be just such a message,
as it was considered unlikely for such a DNA sequence to evolve by itself.  
-- 
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