$100m to find alien life? That's a start — but not nearly enough | Rebecca Oppenheimer

Yuri Milner's massive investment is minuscule for a priceless addition to human knowledge, not to mention the strides in science and technology

The scientific question of whether we are "alone" in the universe is age-old, spanning Giordano Bruno's ideas of the 1500s, Immanuel Kant's writings in 1755, and, of course, science fiction. There is only one answer to this question: "No, we are not alone - and never have been."

This week Russian entrepreneur Yuri Milner, backed by some of the world's top astrophysicists, announced an investment of $100m into one of the most daring and important scientific endeavors ever undertaken: the direct observation of technologically advanced civilizations outside of our solar system.