Telescope bid to spot alien beams

BBC NEWS : "A new optical telescope designed solely to detect light signals from alien civilisations has opened for work at an observatory in Harvard, US. It will conduct a year-round survey, scanning all of the Milky Way galaxy visible in the Northern Hemisphere. Seti is an exploratory science to scour the cosmos for signatures of technology built by alien beings. Some experts believe alien societies are at least as likely to use light for communicating as radio transmissions. The new telescope, which has a 1.8m (72-inch) primary mirror, is the first dedicated optical Seti (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) telescope in the world. It has been installed at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics at Oak Ridge Observatory. 'The opening of this telescope represents one of those rare moments in a field of scientific endeavour when a great leap forward is enabled,' said Bruce Betts, director of projects at the Planetary Society, which funded the telescope. 'Sending laser signals across the cosmos would be a very logical way for ET to reach out; but until now, we have been ill-equipped to receive any such signal.'"