📢💥Sonic weapons: Can sound waves literally blow your mind?

Britain is reeling this week from [the mysterious poisoning]( of a couple by the same nerve agent that sickened a former Russian spy and his daughter in March, which sparked a massive diplomatic crisis. That was only the latest in a series of increasingly bizarre and unsettling spy games. One of the most baffling mysteries—as yet unsolved—began unfolding two years ago in Cuba, when US intelligence operatives under diplomatic cover in Havana began reporting strange “auditory events” linked with hearing loss, headaches, dizziness, and other symptoms typical of concussions. In total, 24 Americans and eight Canadians have been injured in Cuba. This spring, the plot thickened when an American diplomat stationed in China was diagnosed with mild traumatic brain injury after experiencing “subtle and vague, but abnormal, sensations of sound and pressure.” Despite investigations by the FBI and CIA, no one has satisfactorily explained what happened, how, or why. Let’s look at what we know so far, and the ways sound can be weaponized, turning one of the body’s senses against itself. 🐦 [Tweet this]( 🌐 [View this email on the web]( [Quartz Obsession] Sonic weapons July 05, 2018 Mysterious sounds in the night --------------------------------------------------------------- Britain is reeling this week from [the mysterious poisoning]( of a couple by the same nerve agent that sickened a former Russian spy and his daughter in March, which sparked a massive diplomatic crisis. That was only the latest in a series of increasingly bizarre and unsettling spy games. One of the most baffling mysteries—as yet unsolved—began unfolding two years ago in Cuba, when US intelligence operatives under diplomatic cover in Havana began reporting strange “auditory events” linked with hearing loss, headaches, dizziness, and other symptoms typical of concussions. In total, 24 Americans and eight Canadians have been injured in Cuba. This spring, the plot thickened when an American diplomat stationed in China was diagnosed with mild traumatic brain injury after experiencing “subtle and vague, but abnormal, sensations of sound and pressure.” Despite investigations by the FBI and CIA, no one has satisfactorily explained what happened, how, or why. Let’s look at what we know so far, and the ways sound can be weaponized, turning one of the body’s senses against itself. 🐦 [Tweet this]( 🌐 [View this email on the web]( first things first What are the sounds like? --------------------------------------------------------------- The offending sounds and vibrations in Cuba, and now China, have been described with myriad comparisons, including: - “Like those from the half-open window of a fast-moving car” - Similar to cicadas, but “too mechanical” to be insects - Like a “beam of sound” - “Akin to someone shaking thin sheet metal.” - Like “marbles rolling a around in a metal funnel.” Timeline (The timeline is largely sourced from in-depth reporting by Tim Golden and Sebastian Rotella [at ProPublica]( except where otherwise noted.) November 25, 2016: Fidel Castro dies. Is this relevant? ¯_(ツ)_/¯ Later that month: A newly arrived American diplomat in Havana—actually an undercover CIA officer—hears a sound that he mentally assigns to loud insects, possibly cicadas, in his yard. “It was annoying to the point where you had to go in the house and close all the windows and doors and turn up the TV,” he told [ProPublica](. December 2016: More US embassy staff in Cuba begin reporting symptoms like ear pain, headaches, dizziness, hearing loss, sleeplessness, and exhaustion. February 6, 2017: State Department officials notice a pattern in the complaints and [begin to respond](. Those affected are flown to Florida and examined at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, where it’s determined that they have concussion-like symptoms. In March, two affected American officials, both CIA officers under diplomatic cover, leave Cuba. [May 23, 2017:]( The US government expels two diplomats from Cuba’s embassy in Washington, D.C., citing Cuba’s failure to keep American employees safe. Late April, 2017: An embassy employee temporarily residing at Havana’s Hotel Capri is awakened to piercing noises in his room. Within a week, something similar happens to a doctor from the Miller School of Medicine team staying at the hotel. They’re reportedly the only two guests who hear anything unusual. Early May: The Canadian ambassador in Havana discusses the US embassy events with his staff. Several Canadian diplomats come forward with similar symptoms. [August 9, 2017:]( US officials conclude that diplomats had been “attacked with an advanced sonic weapon that operated outside the range of audible sounds.” They are not sure whether the attack was deliberate, and they do not have “definitive answers on the source or cause of the incidents.” Sept 28, 2017: The State Department removes 24 of the 47 diplomats on tour in Havana. Fifteen more Cuban diplomats are kicked out of Washington. [January 9, 2018:]( Senator Marco Rubio calls the source of the audio attacks in Cuba, “very sophisticated technology that does not exist in the US or anywhere else in the world.” But, the same month, the FBI rules out sonic attacks, following an intensive investigation. [March 20, 2018:]( The Journal of the American Medical Association publishes its findings on 24 diplomats exposed in the Cuban case, concluding: “These individuals appeared to have sustained injury to widespread brain networks without an associated history of head trauma,” but none of the theories about the cause of the injuries held up to scientific scrutiny. [May 2018:]( Reports surface about possible sonic attacks on US consulate employees between late December 2017 and April 2018 in Guangzhou, China. China says it has found no instances of “sonic influence,” and cautions the US not to make any snap judgements. [June 8:]( The US issues an alert to all US citizens living in or visiting China, warning them not to look for the source of any inexplicable sounds. Giphy Explainer What are the theories? --------------------------------------------------------------- 🔊LONG-RANGE ACOUSTIC DEVICES (LRADs), aka sound cannons, look like large speakers but are far more powerful: They emit low frequency pulses [at volumes as high as 162 decibels](. Around the world, they’re used by commercial ships to scare off pirates, and by [militarized police forces to control crowds]( or transmit [spoken messages]( that can be clearly heard [up to 5.5 miles away](. Although LRAD Corporation says its machine [is not a sonic weapon]( scientists say it can cause permanent hearing loss, headaches, and loss of balance. “When on high power, the effects are like a ‘punch in the guts’,” a computer science professor wrote in [The Conversation](. LRADs can also cause nausea and “involuntary evacuation of the bowels,” he writes. 🤔The problem? LRADs focus sound in a “beam,” but it’s not so concentrated that it can be limited to a hotel room or house. 🔊INTERFERENCE FROM CLUMSY EAVESDROPPING: Kevin Fu, a researcher at the University of Michigan, reverse-engineered the sound recorded in Cuba and, in a paper published [in March]( concluded it probably comes from two pieces of electronic equipment [creating ultrasonic interference](. 🤔The problem? The officials who spoke to ProPublica felt that Cubans would have little interest in dedicating time and resources to lower-ranking officers who posed no particular threat. 🔊MICROWAVE SIGNALS: A [theoretical microwave gun]( could direct pulses at the right frequency to trigger waves of pressure within a target’s brain. Those waves could conceivably be “heard” by the inner ear. 🤔The problem? “It would require something like a major airport radar transmitter with the subject’s head close to the antenna in its direct beam,” a bioengineering professor told New Scientist. 🔊MASS HYSTERIA: The Cuban government suggested that the “victims” were actually just stressed-out diplomats, with psychosomatic illnesses. 🤔The problem? Physicians who examined the diplomats found evidence of brain abnormalities. 🔊INSECTS: After listening to recordings of the suspect noise in Cuba, a US biologist and cicada researcher interviewed by the FBI said the pulsing noises sounded like bugs. 🤔The problem? Cicadas can be loud, but not loud enough to cause damage, unless they were actually in the ear canal. 😱 Fun fact! Ultrasonic [sound waves can damage a body by causing “cavitation”]( as the waves travel in the body, pushing and pulling the molecules around them, the pressure can create “bubbles” within human tissue, or within the liquid of the inner ear. Giphy Brief history The weaponization of music --------------------------------------------------------------- Militaries have long exploited sound directly to inflict pain and/or to taunt enemies. During World War II, the Nazis played upbeat polka music at German prisoner camps to ridicule their inhabitants’ suffering. The US turned to music as a psychological weapon much later,[beginning in 1989]( perhaps partly inspired by a scene in an Alfred Hitchcock movie, according to[“Sound Targets: American Soldiers and Music in the Iraq War.”]( That year, the military blared rock music into Manuel Noriega’s place of refuge, the Apostolic Nunciature in Panama City. Historians say the music was not a factor in his surrender, but the military [would turn to music at other sieges]( and, famously, used it to [torture prisoners]( in the years following the 9/11 attacks on New York. Million-dollar question So, should we be worried about sonic weaponry? --------------------------------------------------------------- Sonic arms are often the subject of conspiracy theories, and make cameos in sci-fi stories, and [one Tintin book.]( But the real deals exist, too, like the non-lethal “Banshee II,” [a US Department of Energy invention]( which “has a frequency-switching system that pumps your ear drums, so it sounds like there’s a drum beating there,” its inventor told a local news station. The terrifying, remote-operated “[Thunder Generator]( by the Israeli Defense Force is classified as a “non-lethal” weapon, yet it has lethal potential. According [to Wired,]( “The thunder machine uses liquefied petroleum gas to make loud explosions – up to 100 per minute – like a repeating flashbang grenade. It works up to 50 meters away, but stand within 10 meters and Thunder’s makers warn it can permanently injure or even kill you.” In addition to LRADs, which regularly appear at protests in New York and other cities, sending demonstrators scurrying, loitering teens have been subject to The Mosquito, an inconspicuous device mounted outside stores, where it emits sounds in a frequency range that’s typically only audible to those under age 25 (17.5-to-18.5-kilohertz). They’ve also had unbearably civilized classical music aimed at their young ears by convenience store owners. But the short answer is: Unless you’re a soldier, a diplomat, a committed protestor, or an unruly teen, your ears are unlikely to be caught in any sonic crosshairs. Quotable “Every silence consists of the network of minuscule sounds that enfolds it.” —Italo Calvino, [Difficult Loves]( Reality check Some 58,000 of the 1.3 million troops who served in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars are now on disability for hearing loss. The most common sonic threats are from conventional weapons, especially roadside bombs, [whose explosions can cause hearing loss]( and may also play a role in [blast injuries to the brain.]( Reuters/Alexandre Meneghini Pop quiz Which one of these did Cuban intelligence officers in Havana not do to harass American diplomats over the past four decades? Stuff their cigars with small but not lethal explosives.Puncture their tires.Smear dog poop on their car handles.Poison their beloved pets. Correct. Not to our knowledge, anyway. Incorrect. They did that. And if you think that’s crazy, google “US plans to assassinate Fidel Castro.” If your inbox doesn’t support this quiz, find the solution at bottom of email. By the digits 80 decibels: Average volume of a human scream [96 decibels:]( Volume of a chorus of cicadas [130]( Decibel level at which humans begin to feel pain (though this varies by person) [7 Hz]( Frequency of the fictional infrasonic “brown note,” made famous by TV’s South Park as the frequency that can trigger bowel incontinence. [15:]( Minutes of exposure to 100-decibel noise (i.e., from an LRAD at 320 feet) that can cause permanent hearing loss [2,000:]( Number of Cubans who have been involved in investigating the sonic “attacks,” according to Cuba [$400 million:]( Value of Canada’s export business to Cuba in 2015, in Canadian dollars 0: Number of Cuban diplomats ordered to leave Ottawa following the sonic events. [19]( Number of American travelers to Cuba who have complained of the same problems first reported by diplomats FYI Sound tourism is a thing --------------------------------------------------------------- Check out [this crowd-sourced map]( of the world’s sonic wonders, first created by Trevor Cox, an author and professor of acoustic engineering in Manchester, England. Watch this! A torturous playlist --------------------------------------------------------------- In 2008, [Mother Jones magazine]( compiled this list of songs, commercial jingles, and audiobook excerpts US army interrogators used to keep prisoners from sleeping, and to create general disorientation, at prison sites. In addition to the Meow Mix jingle, songs by the Bee Gees, Matchbox Twenty, and Eminem make an appearance. AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh Poll What do you think happened in Cuba and China? [Click here to vote]( The theory about interference seems most plausible.China, Cuba, or Russia, or some combination, are developing a new sonic weapon, obvs.Sounds like mass hysteria! The fine print In this week’s poll about [peanut butter]( 40% of you said you prefer chunky, 19% will take it “any way I can get it,” and 10% don’t touch the stuff. Today’s email was written by [Lila MacLellan,]( by [Jessanne Collins]( and produced by [Luiz Romero](. sound off ✏️ [What did you think of today’s email?](mailto:obsession%2Bfeedback@qz.com?cc=&subject=Thoughts%20about%20sonic%20weapons.%20&body=) 💡 [What should we obsess over next?](mailto:obsession%2Bideas@qz.com?cc=&subject=Obsess%20over%20this%20next.&body=) 🐰 [What have you been obsessed with this week?](mailto:obsession%2Bprompt@qz.com?cc=&subject=Take%20us%20down%20a%20rabbit%20hole.%20&body=) 📬 [Forward this email to a friend](mailto:replace_with_friends_email@qz.com?cc=obsession%2Bforward@qz.com&subject=%F0%9F%93%A2%F0%9F%92%A5Sonic%20weapons%3A%20Can%20sound%20waves%20literally%20blow%20your%20mind%3F&body=Thought%20you%27d%20enjoy.%20%0ARead%20it%20here%20http%3A%2F%2Fqz.com%2Femail%2Fquartz-obsession%2F1321666) 😍 keep obsessing Revisit the Quartz Obsession on: 📡 [StingRays]( 👂 [Earcons]( 🗃 [JFK Files]( The correct answer to the quiz is Stuff their cigars with small but not lethal explosives.. 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