Despite the accusations of my correspondents, I try to keep an open mind about our search for ET. 

That's not entirely trivial. Scientists, whose job description is to learn something wonderfully new, are just as human as the next haberdashed hominid. After pursuing an exploratory experiment for years or decades, they inevitably build up both a psychological and monetary investment in their strategy. They can easily become thoroughly marinated in their current approach, and dismiss other ideas with a sneer and a wave.

I try not to do that, and I credit my colleagues with the same.

It's a constant battle, as SETI scientists (and string theorists, for that matter) are often accused of falling down the wrong rabbit hole. If only they'd adopt a completely different research tack, it's said, they could look forward to stashing a Nobel medal in their desk drawer.

"Why waste time looking for old-style radio signals," many people have written me, "when the aliens will be shooting neutrinos our way?" Neutrinos are one of many types of suggestions for "weird SETI" that make sense, but perhaps not overwhelming sense. These ghostly particles have the advantage of barreling right through such petty obstacles as planets, which means you don't have to worry much about where to aim your "telescope" – the signal could even come from behind you. The problem with these particles is that they cost a tremendous amount of energy to produce, and our neutrino detection efficiency is really low. 

Quantum entanglement has become an oft-heard phrase at the low-grade parties I frequent. "The aliens will use entangled particles to signal us," many tell me. 

At first blush, this sounds like a nifty idea. QE could offer the gold standard for interstellar chit-chat: inexpensive and instantaneous – a kind of subspace communication channel a la "Star Trek." 

Well, you can put that thought away for now. A subtle piece of logic known as Bell's theorem shows that, despite the spooky action at a distance of entangled particles, they're not instruments for faster-than-light shout-outs.




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A look at the SETI Institute's Allen Telescope Array at Hat Creek Observatory about 290 miles northeast of San Francisco, Calif. Credit: SETI Institute.