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

AI for decoding non-human languages

5 minute read

A.I. has become incredibly powerful for translating human languages. Could it be used to glean information from non-human languages? The impact of understand...

How to choose a research topic

13 minute read

For most of my academic career, my choice of research topic was driven by curiosity, some sort of “gut feeling”, and a desire to make a difference, discover ...

How to set up a GitHub pages website on a Mac

3 minute read

First things first. Getting started with open research involves choosing and setting up a way to share your work. I have previously created several websites...