The official Nobel Prize website has published a story featuring James Lin, professor emeritus at the University of Illinois Chicago, describing his 1970s self-experiments and stating that microwaves remain the most plausible explanation for the auditory symptoms reported by US diplomats. The Nobel Prize website publishes long-form science stories related to award-winning research. This piece was co-produced with the BBC. The article traces the history of microwaves from Marconi's 1909 Physics Nobel, through radar and telecommunications, to the microwave auditory effect and Havana Syndrome, and onward to Penzias and Wilson's 1978 Physics Nobel for discovering the cosmic microwave background.
"I used myself as a guinea pig, basically."
"I could hear the pulse."
"The fact I'm still alive⦠I guess it wasn't too bad."
"This became known as the microwave auditory effect and it could help to explain a spate of mysterious illnesses reported by American diplomats around the globe, most famously in Havana, Cuba."
Havana Syndrome Investigation