Nehru Bal Pustakalaya THE COSMIC GIFT Mohan Sundara Rajan Neeta Gangopadhya National Book Trust, India UNDER THE SEA An Indian research submarine was exploring the ocean-bed off the coast of Parson's Pygmalion Point, the southern-most tip of India. Its young Captain, Uttama, and his crew gazed entranced at the strange world under water, strangely lit here and there with many-shaped coral reefs, amidst which innumerable varieties of colourful fish and creatures of weird shapes flitted.

Then a sharp order came through. All movement must be halted. A naval exercise was planned.

The engines were turned off. All was still and waiting. Suddenly, Uttama spotted a peculiar object lying among the coral. It was smooth and of a single unusual colour among the infinite variety around it. It did not resemble any living creature. Curious. Uttama ordered it be captured.

The object turned out to be a big meteorite. Uttama was delighted. He had never seen anything like it on sea or land before. Despite its journey in space and stay in water, it had retained its shape and colour.

The stand-still alert ended. Uttama was ordered to surface. He immediately telephoned his friend, Professor Maruthi of the Stellar School in the Kavalur Observatory complex and informed him about the meteorite.

Professor Maruthi was very excited. The meteorite was the largest he had ever heard of. Receiving permission to examine it Professor Maruthi began conducting tests on the cosmic relic.

As layer after layer of filmy material was removed, a clear pattern emerged, looking like 10101 which Professor Maruthi suggested was a binary code for 21. And 21 could stand for the 21 cm. radio frequency of hydrogen in space.

Was it a message from some intelligent beings in outer space?

For many years scientists on earth had been sending out messages of coded primary mathematics in the hope of these being picked up but so far there had been no answer. Could this be it?

MESSAGE FROM A METEORITE News of the meteorite and its binary content were broadcast by all radio stations in the world. Immediately, a furious debate broke out. The Americans announced that they would make special spacecraft and set off to explore the territory from which the outer space beings had sprung. The Russians, on the other hand, wanted to move cautiously and wait till fuller contact through the binary code was established.

There were also telegrams pleading for a halt to further communication lest another civilisation assess our technology as primitive. Others, however, argued that the intentions of any civilisation which could survive so long might not be evil. Contact with it need not prove dangerous and could even be greatly beneficial.

Professor Maruthi went ahead with preparations to send a message to outer space. He suggested a method to code the message that would be recognised as undoubtedly coming from intelligent beings. He said that the message could be sent in a single succession of 'On-Off pulses of radiation. The pulses could represent ones and their absence zeros. Thus a binary series of numbers would be transmitted. Again, these numbers could be the first twelve primary numbers, viz. 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13,17,19, 23, 29 and 31. This would indicate simple mathematical knowledge which could only come from intelligent beings. There was even a possible method of arranging such a message to give a clear description. By putting an array of 29 groups of 19 squares, for example, and by colouring the ones black and zeros white, an interesting picture could be shown, indicating the physical appearance of human beings, how the solar system functioned and other important facts.