Fast Radio Bursts – a new class of astronomical phenomena

Fascinating from a scientific perspective, but this line piqued my interest the most:<p><pre><code> The detection system used can process 20 Gigabytes of data per second. </code></pre> Now I know that&#x27;s not unheard of, but it certainly would be interesting from a technical perspective to know how it processes such volumes of data. (And also makes me think about a certain other party in current events that is processing <i>vast</i> volumes of data every second as well.)

<i>&gt; The researchers are now looking to determine the origin of the bursts. A precise position would enable them to &quot;count&quot; the number of electrons in the Universe, which would be a tremendous breakthrough for cosmology.</i><p>can anyone elaborate on this? an exact count?

Is there any chance these could be alien signals or byproducts of alien technology? (It sounds pretty outlandish to ask until you realize hundreds of professionals actually spend their careers attempting to answer such questions [1])<p>[1] <a href="http://www.seti.org/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.seti.org&#x2F;</a>