# Voyager Golden Record (bones) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 7, 2025, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-golden-record-bones/1014004 "2025-02-07T09:02:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Loggins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Loggins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loggins)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2025, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-golden-record-bones/1014004/1 "2025-02-07T09:02:23Z")
We all know this space vessel, to which it might meet a foreign civilization. So there are mathematical clues and musical clues left there. Why would they also not leave a piece of a human leg bone? to the aliens to inspect? You know conserved in some plastic or whats it you need… ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2025, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-golden-record-bones/1014004/2 "2025-02-07T10:19:47Z")
Besides the issue of additional weight, I doubt the Planetary Protection Officer would have allowed such a thing. In the unlikely event Voyager crashes somewhere, biological material could be a source of contamination. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2025, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-golden-record-bones/1014004/3 "2025-02-07T10:20:20Z")
Whose bones were you planning to use? They gotta come from somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Loggins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Loggins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loggins)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2025, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-golden-record-bones/1014004/4 "2025-02-07T10:21:12Z")
Yours? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2025, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-golden-record-bones/1014004/5 "2025-02-07T14:32:18Z")
How useful do you think that would be, to any aliens who happened upon the sample? What could they learn about us from a small piece of bone? ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2025, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-golden-record-bones/1014004/6 "2025-02-07T15:20:04Z")
I have no cite, but I recall reading that the Voyager craft carry several organic materials incidental to their construction in things like adhesives and insulation. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2025, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-golden-record-bones/1014004/7 "2025-02-07T15:26:54Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > What could they learn about us from a small piece of bone? How we’d taste in a broth? ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2025, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-golden-record-bones/1014004/8 "2025-02-07T15:31:53Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > How useful do you think that would be, to any aliens who happened upon the sample? What could they learn about us from a small piece of bone ? … I would think in the reverse situation, human scientists would be extraordinarily eager to examine alien biological matter. I understand that we risk anthropomorphizing alien intelligence to make that comparison … but still? ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2025, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-golden-record-bones/1014004/9 "2025-02-07T16:00:27Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > How we’d taste in a broth? Thank you for almost making me spew coffee all over my smartphone. 😂 ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2025, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-golden-record-bones/1014004/10 "2025-02-07T16:14:04Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > How useful do you think that would be, to any aliens who happened upon the sample? What could they learn about us from a small piece of bone? If their form of genetic encoding is similar enough to DNA they might be able to learn quite a bit. The might even be able to grow a human in a vat, if they’re advanced enough. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2025, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-golden-record-bones/1014004/11 "2025-02-07T17:00:58Z")
Sure, but I think there are probably any number of better sample candidates than a random piece of leg bone. A whole organism would be way more valuable, except for the obvious problem that a whole human is quite large and any other organism might give them the impression that’s who we are (not that this matters a whole lot) ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2025, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-golden-record-bones/1014004/12 "2025-02-07T17:03:40Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > A whole organism would be way more valuable, except for the obvious problem that a whole human is quite large and any other organism might give them the impression that’s who we are (not that this matters a whole lot) In that case we should have put a T-rex leg bone, or whole skeleton. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2025, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-golden-record-bones/1014004/13 "2025-02-07T17:40:47Z")
I was actually thinking that perhaps a fossil might be a better sample to send - it’s already stabilised to last millions of years. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2025, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-golden-record-bones/1014004/14 "2025-02-07T17:42:30Z")
\ ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2025, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-golden-record-bones/1014004/15 "2025-02-07T18:00:10Z")
All of the DNA in a bone is probably going to be destroyed by the radiation in space. Your “bone” might not be very bone-like once the aliens finally get a hold of it. I suppose you could encase your bone in some lead shielding, but that adds a lot of weight. > [@Mangetout](#): > > I was actually thinking that perhaps a fossil might be a better sample to send - it’s already stabilised to last millions of years. All of the “bone” is gone, replaced by minerals. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2025, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-golden-record-bones/1014004/16 "2025-02-07T18:16:58Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > All of the DNA in a bone is probably going to be destroyed by the radiation in space. Your “bone” might not be very bone-like once the aliens finally get a hold of it. Even absent of radiation, genetic material will degrade with time; its incomplete preservation in fossil materials on Earth is a consequence of the vast amounts of material and favorable conditions. A durable representation of the genome (i.e. a schematic etched in aluminum or copper) would be more viable because even if an alien life is not based upon DNA or a DNA-like molecule, amino acids occur spontaneously even in interstellar space and any advanced alien civilization will certainly have an extensive understanding of hydrocarbon and nitrogenous chemistry given the abundance of these elements and their proclivity to for complex and energy-containing molecular structures. How you represent our interpretation of molecular chemistry in a way accessible to some arbitrary alien intellect with unknown senses and cognitive perception of the physical world is another question, but then the odds that an alien species will come across these probes is infinitesimal even assuming that advanced civilizations are ubiquitous in the universe. The inclusion of the ‘Golden Record’ is pure hubris that humanity matters in any significant way beyond the scope of our own planet, and we will doubtless be gone—either by self-extinction or whatever may replace us—long before any alien species could conceivably intercept the Voyager probes and interpret the message. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2025, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-golden-record-bones/1014004/17 "2025-02-07T18:57:17Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > All of the “bone” is gone, replaced by minerals. That depends on the type of fossil and the manner in which it was fossilised. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2025, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-golden-record-bones/1014004/18 "2025-02-07T21:00:43Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > \ “Oh, how nice… some restaurant on this out-of-the-way water planet sent us a menu, map, and free sample! They even included some ambient music for the meal.” ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2025, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-golden-record-bones/1014004/19 "2025-02-07T22:19:25Z")
I recall that in _Cosmic Connection_, Carl Sagan discusses the Pioneer 10 plaque that he convinced NASA to add to the Jupiter mission. If you recall, it’s the one with the image of a man and woman and some basic scientific principles. He talked about some ideas others suggested, such as sending an embalmed body, as if aliens want to see that. (The nudity was controversial, so the idea of adding an anatomically correct line to the female’s genitals was right out.) I have to dig out that vintage book and see what else he said about sending body parts to space. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2025, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-golden-record-bones/1014004/20 "2025-02-08T14:40:01Z")
It’s worth noting that the intended recipient of those messages has already received it. It was never about contacting aliens: Any alien race capable of reaching the Voyager probe is also capable of reaching Earth itself, and they’re a lot more likely to be investigating planets for signs of life than pieces of metal a few meters across in the midst of the vast emptiness. The messages were actually intended for us. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-golden-record-bones/1014004.md?page=2)