acoustic weapons

Bizarre reports of US diplomatic staff in Cuba suffering from symptoms resembling brain trauma, allegedly after hearing unsettling sounds resembling scraping metal or insects buzzing, have continued to baffle medical researchers. But a team from the University of Michigan may have come up with a ...

Editor's note: Government and academic investigators continue to probe reports from Cuba that, starting in 2016 and continuing through 2017, U.S. and Canadian diplomats and tourists may have been subjected to a “sonic weapon,” damaging their hearing, causing nausea, speech problems and ...

After months of rumors, doctors have published the first detailed report describing the mysterious illness that struck US diplomats stationed in Cuba. While the source of the illness is still a mystery, the doctors say they're “pretty certain” it wasn't a sonic weapon. Doctors examined 21 people associated with ...

Hearing loss, dizziness, sleep and vision problems, tinnitus, headaches, fatigue and now brain damage—these are the symptoms suffered by two dozen US and Canadian diplomats covertly attacked over the past year while serving in Cuba. US officials initially posited that the diplomats were victims of ...

Mysterious sonic weapons have been blamed for symptoms affecting American and Canadian diplomats in Cuba. Victims reported hearing loss, mild traumatic brain injury, nervous-system damage, and balance issues. Sound-based weapons exist, but experts aren't sure whether any were used in this case ...

Like The Atlantic? Subscribe to The Atlantic Daily, our free weekday email newsletter. Earlier this month the U.S. State Department disclosed that several Havana-based diplomats have experienced “incidents which have caused a variety of physical symptoms.” Secretary Rex Tillerson said the ...

Part of the difficulty in unravelling what may have occurred is that the history of the development of acoustic weapons is shrouded in rumour and conspiracy, says Steve Goodman, the author of Sonic Warfare. There is some research showing that frequencies just outside the human hearing range can have ...

A supersecret sonic weapon being used to attack diplomats in a foreign country may sound like the start of a sci-fi novel, but that's exactly what several U.S. diplomats in Cuba may have been exposed to, the U.S. State Department recently announced. The physical symptoms, which the State Department ...

While the harm caused by most acoustic weapons is minimal, some experts say it's unclear how much of the harm is temporary pain, and how much can contribute to potential long-term hearing loss. The US employees affected in Cuba were not at the same place at the same time, but they suffered a variety ...