I am 30 years old and was born in Hamburg Germany. I lived for a longer time in Kassel before I moved to Freiburg for studies (Biologie). I studied cell-biology and genetics and am currently working on my PhD at the Max-Planck-Institute for immunobiology.
Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home
I think everything started when I was about 10 years old and my parents gave me the book "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan. Of course by that time I was not capable of understanding everything, but my interest was raised for sure. Later I discovered the great contents of that book. I was always interested in biology and self organising systems. So I am absolutely convinced that we are not the only "high" developed organism in the universe. In fact I think that if we would have the chance to view the whole universe from outside and have every inhabited solar-system light up, we would be blinded with light. For me our existence proves the existence of other beings on other planets, because given the enormous number of systems (and very likely planets) in our galaxy alone it is extremely unlikely that we are the only ones around. Of course for us time and space are the main problems in getting into contact with other intelligent beings and if we do, it is likely that we catch a signal of a civilisation that is maybe long gone, but I am definitely looking forward to see their legacy. (Maybe we will be disappointed when we receive their TV soap-operas). I would like to know whether DNA with four bases is used for genetic information more commonly or whether "they" use something different (Future Exobiologists will tell us). Maybe we will find a first hint on this with microbes from mars. Perhaps we will be able in the future to establish trees of ancestry for close solar systems showing on which planet it started and which planet or system seeded the next...
SETI@home and Astropulse are funded by grants from the National Science Foundation, NASA, and donations from SETI@home volunteers. AstroPulse is funded in part by the NSF through grant AST-0307956.
