Episode 6: A Silent Injury
The Sound: Mystery of Havana Syndrome
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The Great Seal, It Was Bucked
In 1945, the great seal sculpture was presented to the American ambassador in Moscow by a group of Soviet school children. Inside the eagle's beak is a tiny transmitter, maybe the size of a AA battery. It took several months for them to figure out how it even worked. The thing was a passive cavity resonator, activated by a radio beam from a van outside. When people spoke, sound waves entered through tiny holes under the eagle’s beak. These vibrated a membrane that modulated the radio beam, bouncing it back as an audio signal.
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