An analysis was done of stellar spectra from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Very brief, narrow-band pulses of light were turned up in the data from 234 different stars. These were all Sun-like stars, types F2-- K1.
The astronomers involved in this analysis considered and discarded several explanations having to do with natural phenomenon and technical faults. Links to their paper, and to a separate, brief description of the project and its results, below:

https://arxiv.org//abs/1610.03031

http://harvard.voxcharta.org/tag/234-stars/

Stephen Hawking's alien-hunting project is investigating strange signals from 234 stars

Astronomers have been analysing light signals from 2.5 million stars observed by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and have detected strange 'strobe-like' bursts coming from not one, but 234 stars.

The pair went so far as to suggest that these light pulses "have exactly the shape of an Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence signal", and now Stephen Hawking’s alien-hunting mission is on the case to confirm or disprove these claims.

Let’s be clear right off the bat - the claim by astronomers Ermanno Borra and Eric Trottier from Laval University in Canada that 234 extra-terrestrial civilisations might be beaming a coordinated light signal towards Earth based on anomalies in the data is extremely premature.

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Is the light modulated? Is it a single frequency? Are the lights turned on and off in an intelligent pattern. Do the people making these claims even know what I am talking about here ? Who and how is light from an entire star controlled?

Is the light modulated? Is it a single frequency? Are the lights turned on and off in an intelligent pattern. Do the people making these claims even know what I am talking about here ? Who and how is light from an entire star controlled?

For the answers to your questions please direct them to Stephen Hawking as the answers arn't here (but you of all people should know that, if you're half as smart as you think you are). ;-)

Cheers.

The pulses could be an illusion caused by the complex analysis performed, in order to bring the signals up out of the noise. Supposing the pulses are real, they could be from laser beams, directed at one star after another, including ours.

Very brief pulses like this, of a very tightly confined wavelength, should be detectable, even against the background of the star from which they were sent.

It's interesting that a detailed prediction of just what characteristics such a signal should have was made by the scientists involved. This was then fulfilled by the observed pulses. Prediction is often called the 'gold standard' for testing a scientific hypothesis.

Interesting, too, if the seeming pulses are errors caused by signal processing, that that should only appear to come from Sun-like stars, those thought most likely to harbor intelligent life in their vicinity, and that only a tiny fraction of these should display the pulses.

It's heartening to learn that these possible signals will be looked for by independent observers, as confirmation is definitely needed.

Is it just me, or would ETI seem more likely if it were two stars instead of two-hundred-some?

I'd say so, yes. It would seem less like some sort of consistent glitch imposed on many stars, albeit in some unexplained way. Two hundred and some stars sending a very similar sort of signal may seem to some to be too much of a coincidence. Of course these stars could support intercommunicating, cooperative civilizations, or parts of a single, galactic civilization. That, too, would be a difficult proposition for some to get their minds around.

I want proof.

Scientists say weird signals from space are ‘probably’ aliens

A team of astronomers believes that strange signals emanating from a cluster of stars are actually aliens trying to tell the universe they exist.

The study, which appeared in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, analyzed the odd beams of light from 234 stars — a fraction of the 2.5 million that were observed.

The bizarre beacons led the paper’s authors, Ermanno F. Borra and Eric Trottier from Laval University in Quebec, to conclude that it’s “probably” aliens.

http://nypost.com/2016/10/27/scientists-say-weird-signals-from-space-are-probably-aliens/

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It's probably pigeon poop on the Telescope. Unless they can detect modulation on the narrow-beam light then I will favor my supposition over the hoopla that these are aliens signaling to us and one another.