The search for extraterrestrial life is about to get a big boost with the announcement that a new telescope will be built solely for this purpose. The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute plans to build a telescope that will be 100 metres on a side and will consist of 500 or more dishes, each about 5 metres in diameter. The combined effect will be that of a single giant dish which will scan the sky in a wide range of wavelengths. The telescope, costing about US $25 million, is to be designed by the University of California, Berkeley ( Science , Vol 283, No 5403).