Big Smile, No Teeth: I want to believe

If there's intelligent life out there, chances are the world's largest, fully steerable radio astronomy facility – in the US National Radio Quiet Zone in West Virginia – will be the first to know. In the meantime, the columnist wonders. — AFP

Are we alone in the universe? It is one of the oldest questions humanity has ever asked.

We have pointed radio telescopes at distant stars, sent golden records into deep space, and landed rovers on Mars and stared hopefully at the soil. Nothing. No little green men. No signal. No reply.