{"id":262657,"date":"2021-05-30T12:00:10","date_gmt":"2021-05-30T09:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/bacteria-are-better-alien-hunters-than-you-sorry-squishy-human\/"},"modified":"2021-05-30T12:00:10","modified_gmt":"2021-05-30T09:00:10","slug":"bacteria-are-better-alien-hunters-than-you-sorry-squishy-human","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/bacteria-are-better-alien-hunters-than-you-sorry-squishy-human\/","title":{"rendered":"#Bacteria are better alien hunters than you \u2014 sorry, squishy human"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a326ccd34e0d\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a326ccd34e0d\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/bacteria-are-better-alien-hunters-than-you-sorry-squishy-human\/#Microbial_Seti\" >Microbial Seti<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;<strong>#Bacteria are better alien hunters than you \u2014 sorry, squishy human<\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<div>Are we alone in the universe? The famous Seti (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) programme has been trying to answer this question since 1959. American astronomer Carl Sagan, and many others, believed that other human-like civilisations must exist, and that we could communicate with them. But sceptics are not convinced, arguing the lack of evidence for such civilisations suggests they are <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.liebertpub.com\/doi\/10.1089\/ast.2019.2149\">exceedingly rare<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But if other human-like civilisations are unlikely to exist, could there exist other forms of life \u2013 perhaps better suited than us to spread in the cosmos? And would it be possible for such lifeforms to communicate with each other (non-human Seti)?<\/p>\n<p>Our new study, <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0303264721000964?dgcid=author\">published in Biosystems<\/a>, suggests it would. Microbes, such as bacteria, may be rulers of the cosmic life \u2013 and they are a lot more intelligent than we give them credit for. Indeed, we show how microbes could mimic the Seti programme without human interference.<\/p>\n<p>To understand microbes, we need to challenge our anthropocentric prejudices. While many of us see microbes as single-cell organisms that cause diseases, the reality is different. Microbes are loosely organised multi-cellular entities. Bacteria, for example, live as member societies of several billion \u2013 colonies capable of \u201cthinking\u201d and decision-making.<\/p>\n<p>A typical bacterial colony is a cybernetic entity \u2013 <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/nyaspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/abs\/10.1111\/j.1749-6632.2009.05022.x\">a \u201csuperbrain\u201d<\/a> that solves environmental problems. More importantly, all bacterial colonies on Earth are interconnected into a global bacterial supersystem dubbed the bacteriosphere. This <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/content\/pdf\/10.1007\/s101230100015.pdf\">\u201cworld-wide-web\u201d of genetic information<\/a> has been regulating the flow of organic elements on Earth over the past three billion years, in a manner that will forever remain <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.researchgate.net\/publication\/5794057_Bacteria_are_small_but_not_stupid_Cognition_natural_genetic_engineering_and_socio-bacteriology\">beyond human capacities<\/a>. For example, they cycle important nutrients such as carbon, nitrogen and sulphur.<\/p>\n<p>Even today, bacteria are the <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/nmicrobiol201648\">most dominant living beings on Earth<\/a>. Take bacteria out of the biosphere, and life will gradually collapse. Bacteria may therefore be far more suited for cosmic <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/trip-and-travel\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"10\" title=\"Trip &amp; Travel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">travel<\/a> and communication than us. A <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fmicb.2020.02050\/full\">recent study<\/a> found that terrestrial bacteria can survive in space for at least three years, possibly more. Add to this the fact that bacteria can exist in a dormant state for <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-020-17330-1?ftag=MSF0951a18\">millions of years<\/a>, and it\u2019s clear that microbes are very resilient.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, various versions of the <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/ui.adsabs.harvard.edu\/abs\/2019asbi.book..419K\/abstract\">panspermia hypothesis<\/a> \u2013 which states that microbial life exists and travels throughout the universe \u2013 support this notion. Recent <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/iopscience.iop.org\/article\/10.3847\/2041-8213\/aaef2d\">mathematical models<\/a> have backed this by showing that microbial travel may be possible not only in our solar system, but throughout the galaxy.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Microbial_Seti\"><\/span>Microbial Seti<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>How could the microbial Seti work? We believe that the bacteriosphere could potentially replicate all steps known from human Seti. Step one in human Seti is the capacity to read cosmic-scale information. For example, using radio telescopes we can analyse distant habitable planets. Step number two is to develop technologies and knowledge to assess whether habitable planets contain life. Step three is to advertise our presence on Earth to intelligent extraterrestrials and attempt to make a contact with them if they respond to initial signals.<\/p>\n<p>Our version of microbial Seti is shown in the picture below. Microbes have a limited capacity to read the cosmic-scale information. For example, cyanobacteria can read the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum coming from the Sun in the form of visible light (step one). This biological phenomenon is called <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/bitesize\/guides\/zpt4xfr\/revision\/1\">phototropism <\/a>and h<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ens, for example, when a plant turn towards or away from the Sun or other light source.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"align-center \"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/400097\/original\/file-20210511-24-p5k1tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip\" sizes=\"(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/400097\/original\/file-20210511-24-p5k1tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=401&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/400097\/original\/file-20210511-24-p5k1tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=401&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/400097\/original\/file-20210511-24-p5k1tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=401&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/400097\/original\/file-20210511-24-p5k1tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=504&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/400097\/original\/file-20210511-24-p5k1tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=504&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/400097\/original\/file-20210511-24-p5k1tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=504&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w\" alt=\"\"\/><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">microbial seti.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Step two was crucial to the development of life on Earth. <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/habs\/pdf\/cyanobacteria_faq.pdf\">Cyanobacteria<\/a> developed a bio-<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/technology\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"4\" title=\"Technology\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">technology<\/a> in the form of photosynthesis (which turns water, sunlight, and carbon dioxide into oxygen and nutrients). This transformed the dead planet into a living one, or the bacteriosphere, over a long evolutionary period. Microbial life then got more complex, creating plants and animals in the past 600 million years. Yet bacteria remain the most dominant life form on the planet. Photosynthesis, as a form of bacterial technology, has always fuelled life on Earth.<\/p>\n<p>Step three is all about attraction and communication between microbes with similar chemistries. Extraterrestrial microbes should be able to seamlessly integrate into the Earth\u2019s bacteriosphere if they share carbon-based chemistry and metabolism, including DNA, proteins and other biomolecules. The opposite process is also possible. Microbes from Earth could travel into space on asteroids and seed life elsewhere in the cosmos. Alternatively, humans, as future cosmic travellers, could act as microbial vectors by virtue of the human microbiome.<\/p>\n<p>To appreciate microbial Seti we need to understand the concept of intelligence in the evolutionary sense. This will enable us to evaluate better the bacterial intelligence, and its capacities in the context of human and microbial Seti. Some biologists argue that human intelligence is just a fragment in a wide spectrum of natural intelligence that includes microbes and plants.<\/p>\n<p>We also need to reevaluate technological signatures as signs of intelligent civilisations. Technologically advanced civilisations, according to the physicist <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/science\/2020\/mar\/01\/freeman-dyson-obituary\">Freeman Dyson<\/a>, must have huge energy demands. These demands may be achieved by building cosmic megastructures, dubbed Dyson spheres, around their planets that can capture the energy from their host star. Searching for such spheres by looking at whether light from stars is blocked could therefore be a way of finding them.<\/p>\n<p>But, if human-like civilisations are indeed rare, there is no point in <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/what-are-the-odds-of-an-alien-megastructure-blocking-light-from-a-distant-star-49311\">searching for such structures<\/a>. Instead, it may be more appropriate to search for biosignatures as signs of microbial life on habitable planets.<\/p>\n<p>The way forward in the search for extraterrestrial life may be to look for <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/0004698172900765?via%3Dihub\">gases in atmosheres<\/a> of planets that signify life, such as oxygen methane or phosphine, which are all produced by microbes. The finding of phosphine in Venus\u2019 atmosphere was a promising lead but it now <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washington.edu\/news\/2021\/01\/27\/phosphine-venus-so2\/\">looks doubtful<\/a>, as a new study suggest the signal could have been sulfur dioxide rather than phosphine. Yet we have no choice but to keep trying. Luckily, the <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/how-hubbles-successor-will-give-us-a-glimpse-into-the-very-first-galaxies-45970\">James Webb Space Telescope<\/a> should be able to scan the atmosphere of planets orbiting stars other than our Sun when it launches later this year.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;\" alt=\"The Conversation\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" class=\"js-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/counter.theconversation.com\/content\/160323\/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic\"\/><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https:\/\/theconversation.com\/republishing-guidelines --><\/p>\n<p><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;\" src=\"https:\/\/counter.theconversation.com\/content\/160323\/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic\" alt=\"The Conversation\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" class=\"\" srcset=\"\"\/><\/noscript><\/p>\n<p><em>This article by\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/profiles\/predrag-slijepcevic-311733\">Predrag Slijepcevic<\/a>, Senior Lecturer in Biology, <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/institutions\/brunel-university-london-1685\">Brunel University London<\/a> and <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/profiles\/nalin-chandra-wickramasinghe-1218218\">Nalin Chandra Wickramasinghe<\/a>, Honorary Professor, <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/institutions\/university-of-buckingham-1222\">University of Buckingham<\/a> is republished from <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\">The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/seti-how-microbes-could-communicate-with-alien-species-160323\">original article<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. 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The famous Seti (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) programme has been trying to answer this question since 1959. American astronomer Carl Sagan, and many others, believed that other human-like civilisations must exist, and that we could communicate with them&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":262658,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/img-cdn.tnwcdn.com\/image\/tnw?filter_last=1&fit=1280,640&url=https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2021\/05\/space-microbes.jpg&signature=863735ee7903f581f131913f1cbf6202","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-262657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}