Well, there is now an explanation of the “sonic attacks” against the US embassy in Havana.<\/p>\n
It turns out that it was crickets looking for love in all the wrong places<\/a>:<\/p>\n In November 2016, American diplomats in Cuba complained of persistent, high-pitched sounds followed by a range of symptoms, including headaches, nausea and hearing loss. <\/p>\n Exams of nearly two dozen of them eventually revealed signs of concussions or other brain injuries, and speculation about the cause turned to weapons that blast sound<\/a> or microwaves<\/a>. Amid an international uproar, a recording of the sinister droning was widely circulated in the news media. <\/p>\n On Friday, two scientists presented evidence that those sounds were not so mysterious after all. They were made by crickets, the researchers concluded.<\/p>\n That\u2019s not to say that the diplomats weren\u2019t attacked, the scientists added \u2014 only that the recording is not of a sonic weapon, as had been suggested.<\/p>\n \u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n Experts on cricket songs said the analysis was well done. \u201cIt all seems to make sense,\u201d said Gerald Pollack of McGill University, who studies acoustic communication among insects. \u201cIt’s a pretty well supported hypothesis.\u201d<\/p>\n When the American diplomats first complained of the strange noises in Cuba, they dismissed the possibility that insects were responsible. But short-tailed crickets are exceptional: They have long been known to make a tremendous racket.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n