The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence

Operating on money and equipment scrounged from the public and from Silicon Valley millionaires, a band of astronomers (SETI) recently restarted one of the iconic quests of modern science, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, which had been suspended last year by a lack of financing.

Early in December, 42 radio telescopes, known as the Allen Telescope Array came to life and resumed hopping from star to star in the constellation Cygnus, listening for radio broadcasts from alien civilizations. The lines are now open, but with lingering financial problems, how long they will remain that way is anybody’s guess.

Under terms of an agreement still being negotiated, the Air Force will pay for a share of the operations at Hat Creek, which costs about $1.5 million (plus another $1 million a year to pay the astronomers). The money raised so far will buy a few months of work at best.

Should we be spending time and money searching for this "needle in a haystack"? Well, on SETI's Wikipedia page, there are some naysayers. "Some in the UFO community, such as nuclear physicist Stanton Friedman, say there is no basis for the search and it is therefore unscientific". These claims, along with many others, have plagued SETI's funding and progress throughout the years, but now they hope to make an amazing discovery with their funding from the Air Force.

Personally, I love the idea of searching for extraterrestrial life. The idea of another living thing being out there somewhere really grabs my interest, and I only imagine what we could learn from these people, and what we could teach them. The drive that these astronomers are showing is remarkable, and I really hope that they find something in the billions of light years that surround us, both for themselves and mankind.