A Harvard professor is risking his reputation to search for aliens. Tech tycoons are bankrolling his quest.

• Avi Loeb is looking for alien tech on Earth, drawing ire from his colleagues. 
• The Harvard professor's research is bankrolled by tech tycoons "pissed off" at academia's dogma. 
• Some critics say Loeb is overreaching for public acclaim.

Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb thinks it's time for the scientific community to get over its bias against UFOs.

In the past few years, the renegade professor has set the astrophysics world on fire by claiming that it was reasonable to suggest extraterrestrial intelligence was behind two recent discoveries.

Several of Loeb's peers are galled. They say he's overreaching, repeating the axiom that an extraordinary claim requires extraordinary evidence.