What does Berkeley do in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence?
We have actually four different SETI projects that are run out of Berkeley. Two of them are looking for radio signals from other civilizations. Two of them are looking for laser signals. For radio signals we are using the world’s largest radio telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. It’s 1,000 feet (305 meters) in diameter. You may have seen it in the movie Contact or Golden Eye. It holds 10 billion bowls of corn flakes, although we haven’t actually filled it up with corn flakes to do that experiment. We collect data 24 hours a day at that radio telescope. We figured out a way to use the telescope at the same time that other astronomers are using it. We call it “piggyback SETI.” Most people are lucky if they can get that telescope a day or two a year. To use it you have to compete with thousands of astronomers. But we’ve got our own receiver and we’re using it all the time, 24 hours a day. The disadvantage is we don’t get to point the telescope. But that’s O.K. because we don’t know where t
