The search for life around the universe will now take place around the clock. The SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute plans to have 42 radio astronomy dishes up and running in northern California by the end of 2007, which will enable it to scan the heavens for alien radio waves on a continuous basis."There are a number of groups around the world doing SETI research. They are listening for radio signals out there, but it is not 24/7," said Scott Hubbard, who holds the Carl Sagan Chair for the Study of Life in the Universe at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California."But it tends to be borrowed time where scientists sign up to use a facility for a few days or a few weeks at a time," he told Reuters Friday on the sidelines of a space development conference in Dallas.That will change when the 42 radio astronomy dishes of the Allen Telescope Array are up and running. It is named for Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen, who donated some of the $12.5 million construction costs.

"When you put all these dishes together it makes a pretty large patch in the sky which you can listen to with great sensitivity — detecting signals which are either very far away or very faint," Hubbard said."You don't have to have somebody who is planning to broadcast a signal. You hope to pick up somebody's old radio broadcast that left a different planet hundreds or thousands of years ago," he said.

View: Full Article | Source: MSNBC

I've heard theories that advanced civilizations (beyond our own advancement) who communicate across the galaxy would not use radio-waves alone, they would use all electro-magnetic spectrums to convey a message so that if some of those spectrums are blocked, most of the message will get through and will be decipherable from the reciever. Similarly to how we send an e-mail through all the networks of cable and it is re-assembled at the destination instead of sending it through one lone cable which would take much longer. Seti has discovered some waves which seem artificial but have never seen a repeating pattern in those waves to suggest a civilization that is using only radio waves to communicate amongst themselves like we do. This could be a result of a far advanced civilization.

The bigger question is, however, who is getting all the money for constructing and running and powering all of these thousands of dishes?

I would imagine partial is from Government funding. The rest, donations, contributions, etc. from organizations, individuals, etc. Oddly enough I thought SETI was already monitoring 24/7 for a signal. I concur.

SETI is premature. First we should run a test to see if there are any signs of intelligent life on Earth. For instance, would we be able to accept the kind of evidence we receive, or would we only be able to accept the kind of evidence we expect? Since the existence of visitations to Earth by hundreds of species of star-traveling humanoids was scientifically proven by 1969
(see The Humanoids, edited by Charles Bowen,) yet the scientists are looking for radio beacons as evidence, I would conclude that there are no signs of intelligent life on Earth, at least not on an institutional level.

~~~Cebrakon