The mysterious noise that some people around the world hear may be due to the special submarine radio used by the US and Russian military.
Glen McPherson of the University of British Columbia (Canada) is conducting an experiment to find the source of the so-called "worldwide hum" - a strange low-frequency noise periodically heard by people around the world. Its purpose is to clarify whether this hum is related to military special communications systems or has some other nature. He writes about his series of experiments in The Conversation.
Periodic cases, noted all over the world, when certain people begin to hear a low noise of an obscure nature, inaudible to those around them, are called the worldwide hum. It should be distinguished from tinnitus, a high-frequency noise that about one in nine older adults hear between 55 and 65 years of age. The "rumble" is much more intrusive, and much less people hear it. Moreover, their average age is around 40, which makes it difficult to attribute the noise to a hearing problem.
McPherson (one of the victims of the hum) builds in his series of experiments on the earlier work of geophysicist David Deming, who became interested in the topic after he himself began to hear the hum. Deming conducted a thorough analysis of all possible causes of such noise and came to the conclusion that the only physically probable cause of this phenomenon is the very long radio waves (frequency from 3 to 30 kilohertz) used by the Soviet and American military to communicate with submarines underwater. Due to their long length (10-100 kilometers), such waves can reach the antennas located just below the water surface. Unlike other radio waves, they have a much higher penetrating power and can overcome even a thin aluminum barrier.
Deming proposed a method to test his hypothesis. This requires an experiment in which people who hear the "noise" are housed in a chamber that is shielded well enough to prevent ultra-long radio waves from reaching it. The second chamber in the experiment will be anechoic, but there will be no isolation from radio waves. The third camera will be a control one - noise- and radio-permeable.
Glen McPherson believes that after he finishes his series of experiments, it will become clear whether the life of those who hear the "hum" can be somehow made easier, and whether some of the cases of tinnitus are also caused by radio broadcasts of one nature or another.
