We hoped extraterrestrials could decode the plaque attached to the Pioneer spacecraft in the 1970s. Would we be able to figure out theirs? A recent paper claiming that a comet was the source of SETI’s ...

Do you speak alien? For years radio telescopes have been listening to the cosmos in the hope of picking up an alien message. We have had no luck yet, so while we wait René Heller organised a trial run ...

Imagine the day when we finally receive a signal from an extraterrestrial intelligence, only to find that there’s a message embedded within. Given that we don’t speak the same language, how could we ...

On a hot November day in the tropical forest of Arecibo, Puerto Rico, amongst the croaking of coquís, the message went out. Warbling audio crackled over loudspeakers—the audible result of the work of ...