Werthimer said that radio pollution is the "big bugaboo" in SETI. "It’s getting harder and harder to do SETI as more of the radio bands are corrupted by satellites, television transmitters and cell phones. Some radio bands are just so polluted we can’t search through those bands anymore."

At the moment, while SETI@home has been highly successful in attracting public involvement, none of the data crunching has yielded evidence for any extraterrestrial civilization.

"Nothing is popping out at us. But we’re going to keep digging. And the further you dig down, the better chance you have of finding a signal ... if it’s there," Werthimer said.

Despite the Universe still holding tight the true whereabouts of any ET, there is some good news. The technology for surveying all possible radio frequency bands of interest is getting better and better.

Given the response to SETI@home, officials running the project are now scoping out SETI@home II.

The upgrade program means that radio band coverage at Arecibo may be increased by adding another recorder system. An additional recording system might also be utilized at a radio telescope in the southern hemisphere, opening up an entirely different part of the sky to SETI scientists.

Even with these augmentations, the search could still be putting a deaf ear to the Universe.

"Maybe we’re barking up the wrong tree ... and there’s some better technology that we don’t know about. Or, perhaps, we’ve got to wait 500 years for the next revolution in physics," Werthimer said.

"But that’s like telling Christopher Columbus: Don’t bother sailing the seas ... you’ll have airplanes and that’ll make your job much easier, Werthimer said. "The point is, you’ve got to start somewhere."