Stretching the Search for Signs of Life

I found this article interesting,

www.nytimes.com...

It looks like they are nearing completion of an array of telescopes with their soul purpose to map the stars.

"Astronomers in Hat Creek, Calif., are planning today to switch on the first elements of a giant new array of radio telescopes that they say will greatly extend the investigation of natural and unnatural phenomena in the universe."

"Anyone out there and broadcasting, for whatever wacky alien reason, would also have to be broadcasting right at Earth. But advanced civilizations, Dr. Shostak said, would be able to tell there was life on Earth because of the oxygen in our atmosphere.

“We’ve been broadcasting that for 2.5 billion years,” he said.

If indeed we have been broadcasting that fact for so long I would have to say that an advanced civilization found us a long time ago, unfortunately we are not allowed to know of their existence because it's being hidden from us.

Great find! About time we did something with all the empty land out west.

I particularly liked this quote.

“It’s like cutting the ribbon on the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria,” said Seth Shostak, an astronomer at the Seti Institute, in Mountain View, Calif.

The only thing I don't agree with in this article is:

"Anyone out there and broadcasting, for whatever wacky alien reason, would also have to be broadcasting right at Earth. But advanced civilizations, Dr. Shostak said, would be able to tell there was life on Earth because of the oxygen in our atmosphere.

“We’ve been broadcasting that for 2.5 billion years,” he said.

We literally have no idea what kind of life can/does exist in our universe. It's ignorant to think that lifeforms can only live off of oxygen. Heck, we have proof of that on our own planet in certain types of bacteria.

-Warlo