pattern physically laid in the crop field. The results are the same because the actual code remains unchanged irrespective of whether it's the original or a mirror image anyway - as the binary coding remains unaltered. Decoding the original message The original message was comprised of several 'sections', each depicting a particular aspect of 'our civilisation'. At the top are binary representations of the numbers one through to ten, interestingly showing the numbers eight, nine and ten as two columns. This shows anyone decoding the message that we can specify that numbers too large to be written on a single line can be 'carried over'. The next section contains the binary values 1,6,7,8 and 15 which indicate the atomic numbers of the primary elements for life on Earth; Hydrogen, Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen and Phosphorus respectively. The larger section of three rows, represents the formulas for the sugars and bases in the nucleotides of DNA. Beneath this is a graphical representation of our DNA 'double helix' either side of a 'straight vertical bar' which indicates the number of nucleotides in DNA. Directly below the DNA double helix is a small representation of us - humans - with a body and two arms and two legs (like a little stick man). On the left is a binary value of the population of Earth. This can be calculated as roughly 4.29 billion, which is roughly the population of the world, back in 1974. On the right of the humanoid form is a binary