IST Lunch Bunch

Communication theory researchers do the relatively routine but deeply important work that maintains and expands our increasingly connected society. It is therefore easy to forget that communications research, by its very nature, is more than about telephones and the Internet, but is about interactions of any and every kind. That is, communication theory is an inherently profound subject and as communications researchers, we should be sensitive to the deeper questions our discipline often raises. In illustration, we describe how some routine wireless research had something surprising to say about how we might efficiently communicate across a wide range of distances and in so doing knocked on the door of one of the "big questions" -- are we alone in the universe?