T hey say that in space, nobody can hear you scream. But if you listen very carefully, you may be able to pick up signs of distant chatter from extraterrestrial civilisations. That appeared to have happened recently when astronomers at Beijing Normal University issued a statement in Science and Technology Daily, the official newspaper of China’s Ministry of Science and Technology, which reported the possibility of having detected trace signals from aliens.
Yet, just as researchers (and the general public) around the world were beginning to digest the news with interest, the statement was removed. A conspiratorial cover-up? Not quite. “The Chinese report of signals is – in my opinion – very likely to simply be radio frequency interference, from orbiting satellites most probably,” says Dr Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the SETI Institute in California. “I think the Chinese have said something similar themselves.”
Indeed they have. But what the initial report showed was just how wide the ongoing efforts to communicate with intelligent alien life has become. Having begun in the 1960s, efforts were stepped up in the 1980s and are now arguably at their peak. With advanced technology, there is now hope of a breakthrough sooner rather than later – and Chinese scientists believe that they will do it first. On their side is amazing technology, notably the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) – the largest radio telescope in the world. Since
