about

Welcome to my open research site!

My name is Gemma Danks and I have a background in artificial intelligence and genomics. This is the place where I organise, document and share my open research projects, how I work on them and what I learn in the process. It combines an open science lab book with a knowledge base of tutorials, tips and advice that I hope will be useful to others.

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technology

Exoplanet technosignatures

The discovery of a technologically advanced civilisation elsewhere in the universe would be monumental and the repercussions would extend millenia into the future as humanity (or its biological or technological descendants) embarks on interstellar travel. I have chosen this topic as my next research focus and I will be documenting my journey towards making a contribution to the field.

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research process

How to choose a research topic

The main value of research comes from sharing it with others. I also want to share the process so I am documenting every step in the research cycle - starting with how I decide what to work on.

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Recent Posts

ETI does not exist

9 minute read

In a paper in 1980 [1], mathematical physicist Frank Tipler presented his argument that if extraterrestrial intelligent beings exist they would already be in...

Technosignatures literature roundup

5 minute read

Reviewing the literature is an important part of the research process. It gives you a deeper knowledge of the field and prevents you re-inventing the wheel. ...

Rationale for the water hole

6 minute read

Searching the ‘water hole’ for extraterrestrial signals had already been proposed nearly a decade earlier as a result of the 1971 Cyclops Project [1] but in ...

The Arecibo message of November, 1974

4 minute read

In 1974, the Arecibo Observatory became capable of transmitting radio signals at a maximum effective power that was twenty times the combined power of all po...

Why are extraterrestrials not on Earth?

5 minute read

After a series of papers on searching for communication signals from extraterrestrial civilisations [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9], Michael Hart at NCAR in Boulder, Col...