Thank you for the clarification. I only poke at this stuff so I'm not surprised I got that detail wrong. My point though was that while we've not seen it, there is no reason to think that under different conditions, DNA-based life couldn't evolve that didn't have the same bases and/or amino acids that our form of life uses. In his essay, "The Thalassogens", Isaac Asimov points out that copper is a pretty shitty basis for one's blood, as it doesn't react with oxygen in the same way iron does, so it wouldn't work as well at transporting oxygen. (A couple of caveats on this. First, it's been a while since I've read The Left Hand of the Electron, so it might have been one of the other essays that talked about it, but it is in that book. Second, it is entirely possible that on a low-iron planet, life could evolve with copper-based blood by developing different enzymes than we currently know about to enable it to function as well as iron-based blood does in us. Studying horseshoe crabs would be illustrative in this, I think, since that's what they have. Third, Vulcan is supposed to have less oxygen than Earth does, so that really makes it seem unlikely to me that they would have copper-based blood, however, if Vulcan had a higher level of oxygen, then that'd make things more likely for copper-based blood. I think. I could be wrong.) I would assume that were we to get a sample of Vulcan DNA, even if we thought that it was mostly human (since that whole Founders thing of them spreading their genetic material across the cosmos), we'd twig onto something being a bit odd, as there'd be genetic sequences for things that we'd only expect to see in horseshoe crabs. My understanding is, though, that one of the reasons why it was called "junk DNA" is that we couldn't figure out what all that stuff is for. I know that in the lab we've created simple organisms that lacked lots of the "junk DNA" and they seemed to function as well as those that had the "junk DNA" and it's only been recently that we've realized that the stuff actually does have a function in organisms. I know that while we've been able to say that certain things are definitively caused or controlled by a single gene, we've also learned that lots of things aren't controlled or caused by a single gene, but by multiple genes. My assumption was that even if all we got were just piles of "junk DNA" for the analysis, we'd at least be able to figure out what some of them are for, and that might give us a clue as to the origins of the organism. Maybe not with present technology, but with stuff that's currently in development.
Most "junk DNA" is ancient viral stuff or similar "parasitic" DNA that has been integrated into our genomes over evolutionary time. Recently, we have discovered that some of it is NOT this, but produces regulatory RNA that manipulates the action of genes. It was just assumed it was junk as it didn't seem to have any of the features of genes or known regulatory sequences like promoters/enhancers. Now the defunct retroviral/transposon sequences of an alien lifeform might not necessarily bear much relationship to ours, but the ones in Earth organisms are actually fairly similar since most retroviruses use the same core features to attack independent of hosts. So you might also postulate that a virus capable of attacking an alien that has similar DNA systems to us would similarly look much like the viruses we know... and we found out a few years ago about viruses jumping species...
I'd say that the odds of you lying and hoping that we'll stop giving you shit about it were pretty high. After all, did you not once do that before? That's being generous. Dude's own reports said that they found mostly human DNA when they did any identification at all. Some of the results could be considered as "inconclusive," but that's no reason to move the needle in any direction from "We don't have actual evidence that proves anything." What makes you think that the results are going to be any different? And that's not accusing the dude of being a scammer or delusional, that's simply because of the way that the samples of previous mummies have been handled. None of the labs involved were willing to certify that the samples had been collected in a manner that establishes they came from the mummies or that they were properly collected. Any samples submitted to a lab in a similar manner will be suspect as possibly being contaminated from something else, regardless of what the results might be. Even if those results seem to indicate that the thing is an alien. Ideally, one would like to have a strong chain of custody from the moment the mummies were discovered until the results were presented from a lab. That's not always possible, even with artifacts that we know to be from ancient Rome, for example. If the documentation of how, when, and where the artifacts were collected is bad, or doesn't exist, it makes it harder to conclusively say for certain the origins of the item. (One of the surprisingly valuable things on the antiquities black market are blank scraps of scrolls and parchment. Why? Because if you have that, then it's much easier to create a hard-to-spot fake of say, one of Aristotle's lost works, which you can sell for even bigger bucks.) In those situations, the best that you can do, is to turn the object, not a sample of it, over to experts for testing. If the results come back saying that it's aliens or a lost work of Aristotle, then while there's still some room for denialists to wiggle in, it's not nearly as much as it would be just handing them over a sample. The fact that you turned over the item willingly, also indicates that you're acting in good faith, so the denialist arguments are going to fall on deaf ears in most cases. You can't say with 100% certainty that you're not dealing with a fraudulent item, but you're 90% certain that it's likely legit and that you're not a fraudster. Those are some pretty good odds, don't you agree? I'd be willing to bet that he isn't going to do that. Which means we'll get the same kinds of results. At best.
I believe that we also figured out some of that "junk DNA" that got spliced in from viruses actually confers immunity to various diseases. The folks that have stuff from bubonic plague in their DNA also seem to be immune from HIV, IIRC. Also, I seem to recall that we've realized some genes only "turn on" at some point in an individual's life, so just because it doesn't appear to do anything now, doesn't mean that it's "junk." Ayup.
You talk about me having preconceived notions? That book I keep asking you to read? The one written by a guy who tried to duplicate what UFOs were said to do? Written by a NASA engineer. I can goddamned guarantee you that if I real alien walked up to NASA, the line of scientists who worked there and wanted to blow the alien would be all of them. I've known scientists, engineers, and NASA employees off and on since the fucking 80s. They'd cut their momma's throat if it meant that they got to pick the brains of an alien.
No, I'm reserving judgement until the DNA results are peer reviewed because apparently someone from the Mexican navy did do DNA tests.
https://x.com/astronaia/status/1703253057109152061?s=46&t=iYW3foyqIA6Tn8VWwn3nwQ Well worth the watch.
Oh, yeah. I forgot about this. https://x.com/xipteras/status/1703425441980203024?s=46&t=iYW3foyqIA6Tn8VWwn3nwQ A star system that was forming while T. Rexes were roaming the Earth is somehow going to produce a more advanced civilization than us? The goddamned planets in the system probably are still cooling.
Tho fun fact, this is the constellation I thought I was really from when I was a kid and didn't want to be human. I still don't want to be human, FWIW.
I found these whilst reworking some slides from a colleague for a university module I'm taking over. They may be apropos here: https://www.compoundchem.com/2014/04/02/a-rough-guide-to-spotting-bad-science/ https://www.compoundchem.com/2015/04/09/scientific-evidence/
Well they've examined the bodies and claim that the skeleton is whole and wasn't pieced together. The Peruvian government disagrees. https://www.euronews.com/next/2023/09/20/mexicos-controversial-alien-bodies-undergo-lab-tests
