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DIRTY LITTLE SECRET. “The small size of the trained workforce in the field is a major problem for NASA and its search for life in the universe.​ For instance, at the NASA Technosignatures Workshop, participants were charged with answering questions about the state of the art of the field, advances coming in the near- and medium-future to advance the field, and what role NASA could play in the field.” https://lnkd.in/djnMhU6 View in LinkedIn

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CONSERVED CLOCKS. “It is not surprising such clocks have been documented frequently in organisms ranging from photosensitive cyanobacteria to humans. The key genes involved in animal circadian clocks are highly conserved. For example, there is high homology among core insect and human circadian clock genes, and recent work on circadian clocks in the cnidarian, Nematostella vectensis, reveals a high similarity of the cnidarian clock to both insect and mammalian clocks, thus implying an early evolution of clocks within animals.” http://icb.oxfordjournals.org/content/53/1/131.full View in LinkedIn

SENSING TIME. ‘The other major rhythm is based on the seasonal calendar known as photoperiodism. In this case, the organism responds either to annual changes in day length, or directly to the length of day/night, and uses this information to determine the timing of key events such as migration or the entry into a dormant state. Both circadian and photoperiodic events rely on an ability to precisely measure time.” http://icb.oxfordjournals.org/content/53/1/131.full View in LinkedIn

GREATER RHYTHMS. “The daily rotation of the earth on its axis and the annual revolution of the earth around the sun generate patterns that have profound impacts on daily and seasonal activity patterns of organisms. Feeding, mating, sleeping, and indeed most behavioral and physiological activities show a distinct rhythm with a peak of activity occurring at a certain time of the daily light:dark cycle.” https://lnkd.in/dG_GuJ2 View in LinkedIn

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SO ENDS this string on the political squashing of astrobiology. The question of whether we are alone in the universe is one of the most important open questions today. Imagine waking tomorrow to news that the Little Green Men had landed on Earth. The recent UFO footage release by the Pentagon of footage taken by US Navy pilots has sparked a mainstream resurgence in the topic. Its suppression for so long smells like clumsy governments sitting on certain knowledge that it deems will panic the stupid populous. https://lnkd.in/dpXfjhZ View in LinkedIn

THE TINY WORKD OF THE HUGE QUESTION. “Today, there are only two regularly scheduled graduate courses in SETI, anywhere. This lack of training is a large part of the reason the SETI community is so small.” https://lnkd.in/djnMhU6 View in LinkedIn

CALLS FOR FUNDING. “NASA should therefore provide searches for technosignatures with the same support that it long ago began providing searches for biosignatures.​ This should include workshops, special funding calls, and partnerships with academic and private research centers in addition to the traditional routes such as XRP and Exobiology. The NASA Astrobiology Institutes have reorganized, but the new Astrobiology Research Coordination Networks, especially that related to Life Detection, are natural places to embrace the search for technosignatures.” https://lnkd.in/djnMhU6 View in LinkedIn