New tool helps scientists better target the search for alien life

An EPFL scientist has developed a novel approach that boosts the chances of finding extraterrestrial intelligence in our galaxy. His method uses probability theory to calculate the possibility of detecting an extraterrestrial signal (if there is one) at a given distance from Earth. Could there be another planet out there with a society at the same stage of technological advancement as ours' To help find out, EPFL scientist Claudio Grimaldi, working in association with the University of California, Berkeley, has developed a statistical model that gives researchers a new tool in the search for the kind of signals that an extraterrestrial society might emit. His method - described in an article appearing today in PNAS * - could also make the search cheaper and more efficient. Astrophysics initially wasn't Grimaldi's thing; he was interested more in the physics of condensed matter. Working at EPFL's Laboratory of Physics of Complex Matter, his research involved calculating the probabilities of carbon nanotubes exchanging electrons. But then he wondered: if the nanotubes were stars and the electrons were signals generated by extraterrestrial societies, could we calculate the probability of detecting those signals more accurately? This is not pie-in-the-sky research - scientists have been studying this possibility for nearly 60 years.