Afore the 1890’s naebody haed the graith or ken for tae hame in on seegnals an soonds in the air. The telegraph existit, in coorse, but lippent on wires an cables in the grund or alang poles. The telephone – Greek for tae hear fae afaur – wis the first brek throu, tho lippent on wires an-aw, but syne, in the 1890’s, the first wireless graith wis upmakkit. Baith Nikola Tesla an Guglielmo Marconi, an Lord Kelvin forby, tried pratticks wi wireless radio at the stert o the 1900’s. Thay jaloused that it shuid be possible for tae send oot seegnals til ither warlds. Whan in hauns wi thir pratticks thay stertit tae pick up soonds thocht tae be seegnals comin fae the panet Mairs, but nooadays we ken that mony natural cheils can pit oot seegnals. Nanetheless the idea wis born that radio seegnals micht be a wey tae contact ony ither life. A puckle astrologues tried this ower the years, but the first modren prattick wis attemptit bi Frank Drake in 1960 at the Versity o Cornell in the USA. In Soothron this is cryed the Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence or SETI for its abbreviate.

Aiblins the maist weel-kent instance o this search tae date is fae 15 August 1977 whan the SETI project at Ohio State, USA, received an undeemous strang seegnal that wis weel abuin ony backgrund noise. Appearinly the seegnal, that lastit the hail 72 seconds that the langscowp wis airtit at it, cam fae somewey amang the starns o Sagitarius. Jerry Ehman, the project memmer that first seen the prent oot o the seegnal, wis that taen aback that he wrate the word ‘wow’ in rid alangside it. Sae tae this day it is kent as the Wow Seegnal. In 2017 the idea that it micht’a come fae the stour gaithert aboot twa comets wis dismisst bi astrologues an in 2020 the pairt-time astrologue Alberto Caballero threapit that the seegnal likely haed its oreeginal aboot a starn cryed 2MASS 19281982-2640123 that sits richt in Sagitarius some 1,800 licht year awa. This is grundit on Cabellero’s wark trackin seegnals back throu the uiss o 3D starn cairtes. Tae this day, naebody can accoont for the Wow Seegnal an Cabellero’s wark offers the maist likely quittance o it.

It micht come as a clearance tae fowk that the’r nae offeecial state project in ony o the kintras o thir isles, either in Ingland, Irland, Scotland, or Wales, that is fundit for tae search for life ayont this warld. Insteid the’r a wheen speirars, steidit in sindry institutes an versities, that wirks thegither on projects, an affen in thair ain time. A puckle Scots cam thegither as Scotland’s SETI group fae 1999 spennin time on thair ain computers an seein on data tae the Versity o Berkeley in the USA. In the simmer o 2013 a wheen academics an astrologues forgaithert at the Versity o Saunt Aundraes an pit forrit ideas for a SETI programme for thir islands that wis syne cryed UK SETI Research Network or UKSRW. Amang them wis Martin Dominik, at Saunt Aundraes, wi his intress in the uiss o SETI ayont oor ain galaxy, an the Scot Duncan Forgan at the Versity o Embra anent detectin seegnals aff ootrels throu thair jaloused uiss o graith that micht draw pouer aff a neeborin starn. Dr Forgan, noo at Saunt Aundraes, heids the Centre for Exoplanet Science, an wirks alang wi the SETI Institute at Mountain View, California, USA. In 2021 the team in Scotland updatit the Rio Scale used bi fowk raikin throu seegnals. The Rio Scale, estaiblisht in 2001, rates seegnals gauin bi hoo likely thay are tae come fae ither lang-heidit life, raither nor natural noise jist, an runs fae 0 (no haein ony likeliheid) up tae 10 (a byordnar seegnal). The howp is that some day, no faur aff, the Rio Scale micht airt us tae the Rael Mackay.