Kardashev scale

TYPE I Characteristics: Planetary Society. Developed Technology. * understanding the laws of physics. * space technology. * nuclear technology. * electromagnetic communications. Initiation of spaceflight, interplanetary travel, settlement of space. Early attempts at interstellar communication. Starting to push planetary resource limits. Information Level: I. Energy Consumption: 10 to the 16 power to 10 to the 17 power Watts. Manifestations: Intentional or u...

 What if Extraterrestrials Spoke in Music?

Might interstellar communication not be messages but music--perhaps a 600 part invention, each part on an adjacent frequency channel? If there were more conventional representation of frequencies for example, the full frequency range corresponding to the range between 1420 and 1667 megahertz would we have the wit to distinguish this music from noise. Other forms of such many-part interstellar musical inventions might exist which each A civilization provides one part. Might we be able to recog...

 Definition of Plank's Constant

Just as you can't have one-third of a penny or two and a half quarters, Planck declared that when it comes to energy, no fractions are allowed. Now, our monetary denominations are determined by the United States Treasury. Seeking a more fundamental explanation, Planck suggested that the energy denomination of a wave—the minimal lump of energy that it can have—is determined by its frequency. Specifically, he posited that the minimum energy a wave can have is proportional to its frequency: ...

 1420 megahertz

In the Next Generation episode “Galaxy's Child,” the Enterprise stumbles upon an alien life-form that lives in empty space, feeding on energy. Particularly tasty is radiation with a very specific frequency 1420 million cycles per second, having a wavelength of 21 cm. In the spirit of Pythagoras, if there were a Music of the Spheres, surely this would be its opening tone. Fourteen hundred and twenty megahertz is the natural frequency of precession of the spin of an electron as it encircle...