What if the first evidence of an advanced alien civilization isn’t a message, but a star whose energy books don’t quite balance?

This week, we explore the strange history and surprisingly real science of Dyson spheres, from Olaf Stapledon and Freeman Dyson to the unforgettable Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Relics.” We’ll learn why a vast swarm of orbiting collectors makes more sense than a solid shell, and how astronomers search for the missing starlight and excess infrared heat such a civilization might produce.

We also examine Project Hephaistos and its search through millions of nearby stars, the James Webb observations that unmasked two promising candidates, and a recent proposal suggesting that hyper-efficient alien computers could create a much colder, and harder to find, form of waste heat.

Then, in the ...