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

Interstellar communications by optical masers

3 minute read

In 1961, a paper published in Nature by Schwartz and Townes [1] was the first to propose that extraterrestrial intelligence may use an optical beam for commu...

Dyson spheres

4 minute read

I am currently reading the earliest SETI papers to get a better understanding of the core ideas in the field and how these have evolved. These are my notes o...

Project Ozma

3 minute read

In 1960, Frank Drake carried out the first experiment to detect radio signals from from an extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) based on a strategy proposed b...