The New Scientist points to a possible lead....
I think that to a lot of people, the idea of life on other planets seems like either an inevitability, mere childish speculation or sheer lunacy. I will not try to convince skeptics otherwise. That being said...
Anyone whose watched the movie Contact or The Arrival should have a decent idea of where the origin of this speculation begins... at a radio telescope.
In Feb. 2003, scientists at the Arecibo, Puerto Rico Radio Telescope found a signal from a source 1000 light-years away... with a fixed frequency that slowly shifted. And though this source has only been heard three times since it was first discovered, it may be an indication of an alien civilization... or an astronomical phenomenon that we've haven't yet encountered.
In another article on the site, Seth Shostak, the SETI Institute's senior astronomer believes that with advances in computing power at their current speed, earth bound scientist may be in a position to find alien civilizations within the next two decades. I think that is a rather optimistic take on things, but there is nothing wrong with having a positive mind set about things. dimming.
Furthermore, recent reports that a new class of planets that are being dubbed "Super-earths" have been found outside this solar system also gives hope to the theory that perhaps life, and perhaps intelligent life at that, exists outside this solar system. The planets, bodies which are roughly the size of Neptune that are rocky rather than gaseous, would seem to be quite different from the gas giants scientists have previously discovered. Of course, on the negative side, with the ever increasing move to cable tv and other such services, our planet is becoming increasingly cosmologically silent once more ... so the chances that our planet could be discovered by another form of intelligent life if it is out there is slowly
Now, I don't know if there is life on other planets, but I think these recent discoveries and theories are interesting, and I thought they were worth sharing.