Related papers: SETI in vivo: testing the we-are-them hypothesis
Abridged: The interest towards searches for extraterrestrial civilizations (ETCs) was boosted by the discovery of thousands of exoplanets. We turn to the classification of ETCs for new considerations that may help to design better…
For over 50 years, astronomers have searched the skies for evidence of electromagnetic signals from extraterrestrial civilizations that have reached or surpassed our level of technological development. Although often overlooked or given as…
Classical arguments for skepticism regarding the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (SETI) are critically examined. It is suggested that the emerging class of "phase transition" astrobiological models can simultaneously account for…
Radio SETI experiments aim to test the hypothesis that extraterrestrial civilizations emit detectable signals from communication, propulsion, or other technologies. The unprecedented capabilities of next generation radio telescopes,…
Any search for present or past life beyond Earth should consider the initial processes and related environmental controls that might have led to its start. As on Earth, such an understanding lies well beyond how simple organic molecules…
The existence of intelligent extraterrestrial life forms among the thousands of billions of galaxies that dance in the Universe is beyond doubt. Meeting with one of them is only a matter of time. SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial…
Many proofs in discrete mathematics and theoretical computer science are based on the probabilistic method. To prove the existence of a good object, we pick a random object and show that it is bad with low probability. This method is…
Can information theory provide insights into whether exoplanets are habitable? Here we apply information theory to a range of simulated exoplanet transmission spectra as a diagnostic tool to search for potential signatures of life on…
Although it has contributed to remarkable improvements in some specific areas, attempts to develop a universal design theory are generally characterized by failure. This paper sketches arguments for a new approach to engineering design…
How to represent the genetic code? Despite the fact that it is extensively known, the DNA mapping into proteins remains as one of the relevant discoveries of genetics. However, modern genomic signal processing usually requires converting…
In training machine learning models for land cover semantic segmentation there is a stark contrast between the availability of satellite imagery to be used as inputs and ground truth data to enable supervised learning. While thousands of…
The goals of the astrobiology community are focussed on developing a framework for the detection of biosignatures, or evidence thereof, on objects inside and outside of our solar system. A fundamental aspect of understanding the limits of…
The emergence of life from inanimate matter presents a thermodynamic challenge: the Second Law of Thermodynamics dictates a global trend towards disorder, yet life constitutes localized pockets of profound organization. This paper presents…
We introduce a spectral embedding algorithm for finding proximal relationships between nodes in signed graphs, where edges can take either positive or negative weights. Adopting a physical perspective, we construct a Hamiltonian which is…
We apply the concept of subset seeds proposed in [1] to similarity search in protein sequences. The main question studied is the design of efficient seed alphabets to construct seeds with optimal sensitivity/selectivity trade-offs. We…
We apply the concept of subset seeds proposed in [1] to similarity search in protein sequences. The main question studied is the design of efficient seed alphabets to construct seeds with optimal sensitivity/selectivity trade-offs. We…
Estimates of the time at which life arose on Earth make use of two types of evidence. First, astrophysical and geophysical studies provide a timescale for the formation of Earth and the Moon, for large impact events on early Earth, and for…
The effects of the evolution force are observable in nature at all structural levels ranging from small molecular systems to conversely enormous biospheric systems. However, the evolution force and work associated with formation of…
According to the "hard-steps" model, the origin of humanity required "successful passage through a number of intermediate steps" (so-called "hard" or "critical" steps) that were intrinsically improbable with respect to the total time…
The Earth viewed from outside the Solar system would be identified merely like a pale blue dot, as coined by Carl Sagan. In order to detect possible signatures of the presence of life on a second earth among several terrestrial planets…