Reply #6: But there's always some party poopin' astronomy geek putting things...

[JohnnyRingo]

...into perspective. And by proxy, a wet blanket like me to pass it on:

The magazine quoted Dan Wertheimer, the chief scientist on the SETI@Home project, as saying that the signal was the most interesting yet identified by the project. He remarked: "We're not jumping up and down, but we are continuing to observe it."

Despite the otherwise sceptical tone of the article, his comments sparked speculation that we had actually made contact with another world. Sadly, this does not appear to be the case, and Wertheimer told ther BBC today that the idea of contact was "all hype and noise". "We have nothing that is unusual. It's all out of proportion," he said.

So the armies of the world can stand down - it was all a false alarm. There are no aliens trying to contact or destroy us, and we can all relax again. Phew.

More:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/02/alien_no_no/