U.S. scientists, searching for signs of life from faraway planets, are building hundreds of radio telescopes in Northern California, their leader says.

Jill Tarter, director of the Center for SETI Research at the SETI Institute, said 42 of the planned 350 telescopes have been built in a mostly uninhabited area about 300 miles northeast of San Jose, Calif., the San Jose Mercury News reported Wednesday. SETI stands for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

She said the area, just north of Lassen National Park, is an ideal location because it is protected from more mundane radio signals.

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen donated $25 million to get the project going. The Allen Telescope Array is also funded by San Francisco-area benefactors, including the University of California-Berkeley and Silicon Valley chip developer Xilinx, the newspaper said.

"In many cultures throughout history, we've always wondered: Is there anybody else? Are we the only ones who can look up at the universe and wonder? I live in the first generation of humans that can try to answer

this," Tarter told the Mercury News.