This is the third episode of a three-part series about sonic tactics, and it’s been quite a journey. So far, I’ve talked about how animals use sound in the wild, from spiders doing wasp impressions to sperm whales whose calls can be deadly at close range, and how people in the past have learned to […]
Havana syndrome
Scary Pigs and Phantom Planes: Audio Warfare Through the Ages
During my last episode about sonic tactics, I talked about the different audio strategies that animals have developed for hunting prey and escaping predators, whether they’re orcas using tail slaps to stun schools of fish or moths evading a bat’s sonar with their clicks. As it turns out, some of those strategies are surprisingly similar […]
Tooth, Claw, and Clamor: How Animals Use the Power of Sound to Survive
Five years ago, the first stories broke about a mysterious syndrome affecting American and Canadian diplomats in Cuba. Each case began with the victim hearing inexplicable grating sounds that people around them couldn’t detect, which then developed into headaches, hearing loss, vertigo, and even brain damage. New cases began to appear in embassies all around […]