If extraterrestrials visited Earth in the distant past, what kind of evidence might they leave behind? For Paul Davies, an Astrobiologist from Arizona State University, the traces of ancient alien (or their robot) visits might be found in one of three places:

1. Nuclear waste
2. Large-scale mining operations
3. A “message in a bottle.” (metaphorically)

Now the third option isn’t literal but could be any number of things. For example, Davies suggests that the message “could be living cells.”

“One idea I had is that maybe the “bottle” [is] living cells -terrestrial organisms, and that message is encoded in DNA. Viruses are continually infecting organisms and uploading their DNA into the genomes of those organisms,” notes Davies.

Davies noted that viruses could encode DNA, so why not extraterrestrials? Indeed, it’s one of the hallmarks of today’s ancient astronaut theory.

“If viruses can do it, E.T. can do it. And it seems to me that we could; in addition to scouring the skies for radio waves with a message encoded; we could scour terrestrial genomes, which are being sequenced anyway, to see if there’s a message from E.T. encoded.”

See Davies discuss this in the video from Big Think below:

Intentionally Seeded Ancient Code

At the time, Davies knew that finding a message from extraterrestrials in our DNA was a stretch. However, not long after, two scientists from Kazakhstan reported they might have discovered just that: an “intelligent “signal within the human genetic code.”

The mathematician and astrobiologist titled their paper “The ‘Wow! signal’ of the terrestrial genetic code.” The Acknowledgments give the nod to Davie’s ideas. The “Wow” refers to the now-famous 1977 SETI signal that prompted a researcher to write, “Wow!” next to it.

The researchers didn’t use the phrase “intelligent design,” but suggested they found code that seemed to be “seeded intentionally.” That information, they argued, appeared to be non-biological and mathematical and symbolic.

They speculated the ancient code came from another solar system, possibly intentionally seeded by panspermia. Could it be the “message in a bottle” that Davies suggested before them?

“Whatever the actual reason behind the decimal system in the code, it appears that it was invented outside the solar system already several billions years [sic] ago,” they wrote.

You can see more about this study in the video clip from the History Channel’s Ancient Aliens series below. Prepare to entertain the idea the humans are nothing more than artificially created “organic robots” with artificial intelligence. (A.I.)

DNA From Alien ‘Close Encounters’

The scientists from Kazakhstan don’t claim to know how an ancient code was seeded in our genes. Rather, they suggest the DNA code could have arrived on Earth through panspermia, space dust that drifted from outer space. 

However, modern stories about extraterrestrials actively tinkering with humans’ DNA are commonly accepted by Ancient Astronaut theorists.  

In at least one case, there was some evidence of interbreeding between an extraterrestrial and human. A man named Peter Khoury claimed that two humanoid females entered his room. One of the humanoids had long blond hair, large eyes, and a long chiseled face. The other appeared to be Asian in appearance. 

Following a bizarre sexual encounter with the blond woman, he found and kept a piece of her hair she left behind. 

Later the DNA from the optically clear hair was tested, revealing rare DNA markers. Instead of being typical of a light-skinned caucasian woman, they were characteristic of rare Chinese and old Gaelic lineage.

See Khoury discuss the story in the video from the History Channel below:

Rewriting the Code of Life

Are extraterrestrials actively designing humans’ DNA in some way even today? Well, now, humans are doing it themselves. The 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna for their 2012 work in precisely editing DNA.

As they were introduced for the prize, the secretary-general of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Goran K. Hansson, said:

“This year’s prize is about rewriting the code of life.”

The two women stumbled across the revolutionary technique called Crispr while studying the bacteria that causes scarlet fever. When inspecting the microbe’s DNA, they found repeating segments. These segments were made up of regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats: Crispr for short.

The segments were derived from a virus that had attempted to infect the bacteria.

Thanks to their research, repeating code from a virus has revealed how to change our DNA effectively. As Paul Davies said, “If viruses can do it, E.T. can do it.” Now, we are doing it too, and rapidly transforming science, the world, and probably ourselves.

Is it possible this discovery was inevitable, something artificially ingrained in our being all along? Are we artificial 

Featured image: Screenshots via YouTube 

YouTube Video Here: https://www.youtube.com/embed/_7h7t_i4FBM?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1

Penguin mummies dating back thousands of years have been discovered in Antarctica.

An ornithologist from the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, Steven Emslie, has studied penguins in Antarctica for over 15 years. Over the years, he’s discovered penguin remains from abandoned penguin colonies, tracing clues about climate changes.

In recent years, Emslie says a warming trend has reached deeper into the continent than before. As the ice has melted, it has exposed a penguin colony dating back thousands of years.

In September 2020, he reported the news that he found ancient naturally mummified penguins. Although they looked as though they might be recently deceased, the penguins date back from 800 to 5,000 years ago. 

Despite so many years, the penguin’s feathers remained intact. Flesh remained as if the birds had died recently. Also, stains from the bird’s waste were still apparent on rocks as if no time had passed.

Ancient penguin mummies

Emslie described what he found:

“This particular site is in the Ross Sea in east Antarctica, and it was a very cold dry place compared to other parts of Antarctica so the preservation is even better and there was mummification,” Emslie said.

“What I found at the site were a lot of bones and mummies on the surface. Some of the penguin remains looked pretty fresh, so it seems like there was a mixture of old and fresh remains, and that seems strange to me at this location, which hasn’t had breeding penguins reported there in the history of people going to Antarctica.

So, I started to investigate more, and I realized this was a site that had been exposed just recently by snowmelt that’s occurring there and that these fresh remains were actually ancient but just being re-exposed after being frozen for centuries.”

The Adélie penguins used the nesting grounds for thousands of years. Strewn about the site, countless pebbles are a tell-tale sign. As Adélie penguins nest, they gather pebbles to protect their eggs. 

As recently as 100 years ago, nothing was found at the same location by early explorers. Today, after 800 years, the ancient colony is once again visible.

What happened to the penguin colony?

According to the Times:

“Dr. Emslie speculates in the journal Geology. where he reported his findings in mid-September, that cooling temperatures drove a type of sea ice to form along the coast that persisted well into summer months.

Known as “fast ice” because it “fastens” to the coastline, this sea ice makes it very difficult for penguins to gain access to beaches and prevents them from colonizing places where it occurs.”

Today, sea levels are rising along with temperatures. Fortunately, Adélie penguins alive today are proving adaptable, seeking out new nesting grounds. Now, the scientist believes they will return to their ancestor’s old nesting ground. Finding the wealth of pebbles already in place, they may find the location highly desirable.

“They need pebbles for their nests, so they are going to find all the pebbles that are already on the land at this site very attractive,” he said. “I would not be surprised to see them make this place their home again in the near future,” said Emslie.

Related Read: Scientists discover giant human-sized penguin that once lived in New Zealand

An Adélie penguin ‘Supercolony’

In 2018, scientists revealed the discovery of a huge ‘supercolony’ of Adélie penguins in Antarctica. Studying NASA satellite images, they spotted penguin feces in the remote Danger Islands.

Before the discovery, researchers believed the penguin populations were on the decline. Afterward, they counted over 750K pairs of penguins.

See more about the supercolony from TIME below:

Intruders in Earth’s last  ‘untouched’ wilderness

As Antarctica warms, there is a surge in tourism in one of the wildest remaining places on Earth. Mostly by cruise ships, there could be more than 78,500 visitors this year, up from 56,000 tourists in the two prior years.

As humans begin to arrive more frequently, scientists fear they will disrupt the fragile, relatively untouched environment. Along with the people, insects and plant seeds could arrive. Thus, isolated penguin colonies and other wildlife will have to rapidly adapt to more than climate change alone.

Antarctica has seen incredible changes over millions of years. Some 250 million years ago, the continent may have been covered with forests and rivers. Instead of penguins, early relatives of the dinosaurs called Antarctica home.

Featured image: Adelie Penguins by Christopher Michel  via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)