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    Dolphins Are Helping Us Hunt for Aliens

    by Daniel Oberhaus May 06, 2018 4 minutes

    SETI Institute astronomer Laurance Doyle proposed using information theory to analyze animal communication systems, particularly the whistle repertoire of bottlenose dolphins.Illustration by Victor Habbick Visions

    When 12 men gathered at the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia to discuss the art and science of alien hunting in 1961, the Order of the Dolphin was born. A number of the brightest minds from a range of scientific disciplines, including three Nobel laureates, a young Carl Sagan, and an eccentric neuroscientist named John Lilly—who was best known for trying to talk to dolphins—were in attendance.

    It was Lilly’s research that inspired the group’s name: If humans couldn’t even communicate with animals

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