Stephen Hawking launches 'biggest ever' search for alien life

Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking joined a Russian billionaire to launch a 100 million US dollars quest to see if extraterrestrial intelligence exists. Speaking at the launch of the project in London, Hawking said there was no bigger question than this. "It is time to commit to finding the answer to search for life beyond Earth," he said, using a computer-generated voice to communicate because of his motor neurone disease. Hawking has offered his support to tech entrepreneur Yuri Milner's Breakthrough Initiatives project - a major new effort to search for alien life. It would involve the world's most powerful telescopes, allied to some nine million volunteers donating their spare computing power. The result would be a global supercomputer capable of scanning the skies using ten billion different frequencies.