In the late 1970s, a bizarre theory began making its way around the scientific community. DNA sequencing pioneer Frederick Sanger of the Medical Research Council's Laboratory of Molecular Biology and his colleagues had just published their landmark paper on the genome of virus Phi X174 (or ΦX174), a well-studied bacteriophage found in E. coli. That genome, some said in the excitement that followed, contained a message from aliens.
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