[pmoriarty]

"if we transfer the DNA to an advanced alien civilization - would they be able to make a human."

I'm really surprised that in all these responses to your question no one's mentioned the womb or the mother, who (at least with current technology) is still necessary for making a human.

That's not to mention the necessity of the egg.

We're not just DNA.

[dchftcs]

This is a question about theoretical possibilities and what you're saying seems to be a rigid belief in an answer "no". But you provided no evidence or justification, except for "with current technology", which answers nothing about the theoretical question.

[dekhn]

Artificial wombs have come quite a long way! It is not inconcievable to imagine that you could bring a zygote to term in an artificial womb.

[borissk]

Instructions on how to make a womb and an "egg" are contained within the human DNA.

[crdrost]

It is known that that is not true, due to the distinct genetic code of mitochondria and known epigenetic influences of mothers on their children in utero.

You could say “well that's the last 10% of the details, maybe 90% is in the DNA,” but I think I would be suspicious that it's that high, because one of the things we know about humans is that we are born with all of the ova that we will ever have, rather than deferring the process until puberty. I should think that if it could be deferred it would have been, “you will spend the energy to make these 15 years before you need to for no real reason” seems very unlike evolution whereas “my body is going to teach you how to make these eggs, just the same as my mother's body taught me,” sounds quite evolutionarily reasonable.

[wizofaus]

But maybe you needed a pre-human womb to bootstrap the first human, and we no longer have the blueprint for that...