THOUGHT EXPERIMENT SENTIENT COMMUNICATION

assume you are a sentient alien
but you are the size of an atom

as you approach a human being
you approach the skin of a human being

but you are much smaller than a human skin cell
smaller than the DNA inside that human skin cell

smaller than the 4 chemical bases that make up DNA:
adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), and thymine (T).


smaller than the molecules that make up each of those Bases



How would you communicate or even recognize a sentient Human Being ?



What would I see as I approach a human being?



A lot of EMPTY SPACE
Atoms
maybe I would recognize clumps of atoms
but would I even recognize how these atom form molecules?

Now lets assume I am not even an atom.
I am an electron


Elements have been organized into the Periodic Table, organized by weigh,
but also by their ATOMIC STRUCTURE


Each atom of an element, like Helium or Hydrogen, is made up of an arrangement of 3 things:
Neutron, Proton, and Electron



Hydrogen is a Proton circled by an Electron (sort of like a Solar system with 1 planet)
Helium is 2 Protons and 2 Neutrons in the Center circled by 2 electrons (sort of like a twin star system with 2 planets). see


so if I am a sentient being on one of those electrons?





HELIUM - Nasa: Ultraviolet light emitted by oinized helium atoms in the Sun's chromosphere. http://www.chemicool.com/elements/helium.html


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DNA


http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/handbook/basics/mtdna
Mitochondria are structures within cells that convert the energy from food into a form that cells can use. Each cell contains hundreds to thousands of mitochondria, which are located in the fluid that surrounds the nucleus (the cytoplasm).

Although most DNA is packaged in chromosomes within the nucleus, mitochondria also have a small amount of their own DNA. This genetic material is known as mitochondrial DNA or mtDNA.

In addition to energy production, mitochondria play a role in several other cellular activities. For example, mitochondria help regulate the self-destruction of cells (apoptosis). They are also necessary for the production of substances such as cholesterol and heme (a component of hemoglobin, the molecule that carries oxygen in the blood).


Mitochondrial DNA contains 37 genes, all of which are essential for normal mitochondrial function. Thirteen of these genes provide instructions for making enzymes involved in oxidative phosphorylation. The remaining genes provide instructions for making molecules called transfer RNAs (tRNAs) and ribosomal RNAs (rRNAs), which are chemical cousins of DNA. These types of RNA help assemble protein building blocks (amino acids) into functioning proteins

http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/cells/mitochondria/mitochondria.html


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