$100 million seti initiative starts listening for E.T.

The search for extraterrestrial intelligence-SETI-has a checkered history, and even its most ardent proponents accept that positive results are unlikely anytime soon. So it's no wonder that SETI researchers often struggle to find funding. But last year the Russian billionaire Yuri Milner offered to support SETI efforts over the next 10 years with US $100 million. The first radio observations, through a program called Breakthrough Listen, will be made sometime in the next few months. And one of the early targets may be a star system that has already shown suggestions of possibly being the home of a technologically advanced alien civilization. While the chances for actually picking up signals from an E.T. remain slim, the adventure will surely be fun to watch as it unfolds this year.