> The “Beacon in the Galaxy” is an effort to use basic mathematical and physical concepts to establish a universal means of communication that could be decoded and interpreted by intelligences not of this Earth. Cue binary coding (the simplest form of mathematics and likely universal across all intelligence), and a message that focuses almost entirely on mathematics and physics rather than possibly confusing human culture and language. It’s also carefully-crafted to illicit the kind of reply that humans would want from an extraterrestrial intelligence; it’s an invitation for a cosmic conversation that could span many centuries. > What is in the ‘Beacon in the Galaxy?’ >information on the biochemical composition of life on Earth (including a visual depiction of the four constituent bases of DNA: adenosine, cytidine, guanosine, and thymidine). a timeline originating from the Big Bang to indicate the universal time the signal was sent (and also scientific dates of events that advanced humanity, such as Isaac Newton discovering his Laws of motion and force, Einstein’s Relativity, the start of the Space Age and the Moon landing in 1969). the Solar System's time-stamped position in the Milky Way relative to known globular clusters (so aliens know where to beam their reply and when to expect their message to arrive). digitized depictions of the Solar System and Earth’s surface. digitized images of humans. an invitation for any receiving intelligences to respond (an image of the transmitting telescope and another generic telescope sending transmissions to each other). I still don’t understand why the man can’t have a head