You possess five relatively well-developed senses. If the beings are not hostile, you must first determine if they have the same senses, only some part of them, or additional senses that man does not have. For example, they may have a sense similar to extra-sensory perception and communicate with each other through telepathy. If you can exchange thoughts with them, that is fine. If you cannot tune in on their mental wavelengths, you’re in trouble. The sense of smell is practically limited to attractive perfumes and repulsive odors. Taste has the same limitations. Touch has been used for communication between humans, as in teaching the blind and deaf, but it requires physical contact (certainly a risky act when meeting strangers) and is limited to elementary concepts at best. The only practical senses--of those which we humans possess, at any rate--for direct communication are sight and hearing. If our Martians or Venusians have these senses--and if their reasoning processes are similar to those of humans--then communication could probably be established in the same manner with which we teach our children. You could use “sign language.” You could point to your mouth and move your jaws to indicate you thought refreshments should be served. You could point to their head or heads (if they had them) and then at your own head and say “head.” With time and patience, a basis for communication could be established. But suppose their methods of communication are entirely different. Suppose they use antennae, like ants, or gyrations, like bees. Dr. Karl von Frisch, the German zoologist, discovered that when a bee locates a rich source of nectar, she returns to the hive and performs a dance. The number of times she turns reveals the distance, and her position in relation to the sun and the hive gives the direction. This “breakthrough” into subhuman communication required controlled and sustained observation. It will have to be the necessary procedure if man encounters creatures with similar characteristics with his present knowledge. Von Frisch’s discovery was a one-way avenue of understanding. But if the ants and the bees were much larger and more intelligent, we can assume that a demonstrative style of language could be devised for mutual communication. To our scientists it is obvious that before our spacemen confront alien beings on a distant planet, we must learn the fundamentals of developing communication with a non-human but intelligent species right here on earth. And this is now in progress with “Project Dolphin.” * * * * * Bottle-nosed dolphins are not fish, but aquatic mammals. Often, but inaccurately, called porpoises, they are well known as clever, frolicsome entertainers at marineland exhibits.