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Published online 5 November 2001 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news011108-4
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Letters from nowhere
Alphabet spelt out spontaneously in mixing chemicals.
Our ability to recognize patterns might help us to navigate the world and distinguish friend from foe, but it also makes us liable to discern faces in the rock shadows on Mars. Yet there is no denying it - the patterns in a mixture of chemicals reported by two researchers spell out the letters of the Roman alphabet1.
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