An intriguing side issue of this ... that is, the general concept of "DNA-as-information-carrier" - maybe it has been done already, and maybe we should be looking for an encoded message which has been here for millions of years. Actually there are themes in SciFi which have explored a similar possibility- that there are messages awaiting us in DNA.
This does not mean require an alien visit per se. Wiki has an article on "extremophiles" which is the kind of lifeform that could tolerate the cold and vacuum of space - and possibly be carried to Earth from elsewhere - PURPOSELY and with encoded messages in unused DNA. Most known extremophiles are microbes - like the domain Archaea - which name says it all. How would you decode such DNA? Would it mathematical, verbal or more likely: some kind of self-teaching format. Here is the start of a possibly way to transfer with few losses - and with a lot of references to other articles: http://www.panspermia.org/nongenseq.htm Jones From: Jed Rothwell Not quite as off topic as you might think. I am looking into this as part of an essay about the history of cold fusion I am writing. Anyway, see: http://arep.med.harvard.edu/pdf/Church_Science_12.pdf This prof. at Harvard, George Church, has been experimenting with recording data in DNA. He recorded his own book and then read it back, with only a few errors. He reproduced it 30 million times, making it "the biggest best seller in history" in a sense.
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