By Mark O’Neill

In what is being touted as a “new switchboard for aliens“, the 42 telescope dishes at Hat Creek Radio Observatory will soon kick into action.

When the full 350 telescope dish display is finished in a few years time – initially funded by $30 million from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen – it will be the biggest extra-terrestrial search station ever in the world.

But problems are already cropping up.   Allen’s $30 million is already gone and they need a further $40 million to finish the rest of the dishes.    So they are having to resort to tacky “Adopt a Scientist” schemes to raise the extra money as the government isn’t going to rush in and write them a check.

It’s a sad day when science and exploration gets pushed to the back of the line in favour of billions getting pumped into pointless wars in the Middle East.