Kevin Fu, an electrical and computer engineering professor at Northeastern University, says the real cause is probably something simpler:
crickets.
“The greatest contender right now is the short-tailed West Indies cricket, which has a chirp that’s extremely annoying to the point where it can cause harm to you,” Fu says. “That’s the theory I’d put my money on, but it’s still unsolved. In my opinion, it’s not likely it’s a nation state trying to deliberately cause harm.”
With his experience in the “dark arts of electronic warfare,” Fu appeared on the most recent episode of History Channel’s “History’s Greatest Mysteries” focused on Havana syndrome. In 2018, Fu
performed experiments with ultrasound that showed how Havana syndrome could be the result of “malfunctioning ultrasonic eavesdropping devices.”
But since that time,
Fu has come around to the cricket theory––and he’s not alone. In a declassified report, JASON, an advisory group that works with the State Department, also found reason to believe that the Indies short-tailed cricket could be the culprit. The group performed a pulse repetition analysis of audio captured in Cuba and audio of these crickets and found they were remarkably similar.
“
The chance of that being randomly the same is zero,” says Fu, who was recently appointed to the White House’s working group on cybersecurity resilience.
“That was convincing enough, but then
on top of that, it’s a really simple explanation,” Fu continues. “
It explains all the symptoms, whereas all the other approaches really require a healthy dose of imagination.”
What’s the real cause of Havana Syndrome? Northeastern professor explains on ‘History’s Greatest Mysteries’ (Northeastern Global News, June 13, 2023)
