Searching for E.T.'s Laser  The search for extraterrestrial
intelligence (SETI) has proceeded for the last few decades as a
noble experiment among professional scientists and ardent
amateurs—the latter even donating spare cycles on their desktop
PCs to participate. It hypothesizes that it may take quite a
long time to identify an intelligent signal from the cosmos; but
if that should ever transpire, it would mark one of the greatest
moments in the history of civilization, which would certainly
justify all the tedious effort. In this month's feature "The New
Search for E.T.", author Monte Ross updates us on the work of
SETI scientists who are using new technology to search for
signals from intelligent extraterrestrials who may have chosen
to send their message via laser.  Ross , an IEEE Fellow and a
pioneer in the use of laser communications, writes that using
Frank Drake's famous equation for the probability of some
intelligent beings existing in our galaxy we can deduce that the
number is quite small, but it