Right now there are folks scanning the sky looking for artificial radio signals - radio signals suggesting the existence of extraterrestrial life. Pursuits like this are often classified as SETI (The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence). It's hard to determine for sure what percentage of the Volcano's readership is actively engaged in SETI, but it's believed to be a sizeable one (roughly the same percentage of readers who actively smoke weed out of Mountain Dew cans). Folks have been looking for these radio signals for half a century, but so far none have been found. What's the deal? The University of Puget Sound's Bernard Bates, Ph.D. will discuss this and more next week at the November installment of the Tacoma Science Café, kicking off at The Swiss Tuesday night.

[The Swiss, 6:30 p.m., no cover, 1904 Jefferson Ave., Tacoma, pacificsciencecenter.org]