I think the mere possibility of extraterrestrial life is thrilling. In fact, I just completed a lesson plan on radio astronomy and the possibility of extraterrestrial life to be taught during SpaceWeek festivities in a couple of weeks!
SETI@home and Astropulse are funded by grants from the National Science Foundation, NASA, and donations from SETI@home volunteers. AstroPulse is funded in part by the NSF through grant AST-0307956.