A Wow! signal is definite evidence for extraterrestrial life. We missed this from 2013:
The SETI hypothesis of an intelligent signal in the genetic code is tested. The code is shown to possess an ensemble of same-style precision-type patterns. The patterns are shown to match the criteria of an intelligent signal.
It’s apparently still legal to say that. From ScienceDirect at Icarus:
Abstract: It has been repeatedly proposed to expand the scope for SETI, and one of the suggested alternatives to radio is the biological media. Genomic DNA is already used on Earth to store non-biological information. Though smaller in capacity, but stronger in noise immunity is the genetic code. The code is a flexible mapping between codons and amino acids, and this flexibility allows modifying the code artificially. But once fixed, the code might stay unchanged over cosmological timescales; in fact, it is the most durable construct known. Therefore it represents an exceptionally reliable storage for an intelligent signature, if that conforms to biological and thermodynamic requirements. As the actual scenario for the origin of terrestrial life is far from being settled, the proposal that it might have been seeded intentionally cannot be ruled out. A statistically strong intelligent-like “signal” in the genetic code is then a testable consequence of such scenario. Here we show that the terrestrial code displays a thorough precision-type orderliness matching the criteria to be considered an informational signal. Simple arrangements of the code reveal an ensemble of arithmetical and ideographical patterns of the same symbolic language. Accurate and systematic, these underlying patterns appear as a product of precision logic and nontrivial computing rather than of stochastic processes (the null hypothesis that they are due to chance coupled with presumable evolutionary pathways is rejected with P-value < 10–13). The patterns are profound to the extent that the code mapping itself is uniquely deduced from their algebraic representation. The signal displays readily recognizable hallmarks of artificiality, among which are the symbol of zero, the privileged decimal syntax and semantical symmetries. Besides, extraction of the signal involves logically straightforward but abstract operations, making the patterns essentially irreducible to any natural origin. Plausible ways of embedding the signal into the code and possible interpretation of its content are discussed. Overall, while the code is nearly optimized biologically, its limited capacity is used extremely efficiently to pass non-biological information. (public access) – Vladimir I. shCherbaka, , Maxim A. Makukov Acorus, The “Wow! signal” of the terrestrial genetic code, Volume 224, Issue 1, May 2013, Pages 228–242 More.
From the paper:
To be considered unambiguously as an intelligent signal, any patterns in the code must satisfy the following two criteria: (1) they must be highly significant statistically and (2) not only must they possess intelligent-like features (Elliott, 2010), but they should be inconsistent in principle with any natural process, be it Darwinian (Freeland, 2002) or Lamarckian (Vetsigian et al., 2006) evolution, driven by amino acid biosynthesis (Wong, 2005), genomic changes (Sella and Ardell, 2006), affinities between (anti)codons and amino acids (Yarus et al., 2009), selection for the increased diversity of proteins (Higgs, 2009), energetics of codon-anticodon interactions (Klump, 2006; Travers, 2006), or various pretranslational mechanisms (Wolf and Koonin, 2007; Rodin et al., 2011). The statistical test for the first criterion is outlined in Appendix B, showing that the described patterns are highly significant.
See also: NASA’s mission to find life on Jupiter’s promising moon, Europa
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