Ian Sample delves into a preliminary study of US embassy staff said to have been targeted by an energy source in Cuba. With no unifying explanation, what do scientists think happened?

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Between 2016 and 2017, a number of US diplomats in Cuba reported distressing symptoms including headaches, dizziness, eyesight, hearing, concentration and balance problems. Many claimed to have heard curious sounds either at home or in hotel rooms in Havana. Were the diplomats attacked with a mysterious new weapon? Was it espionage gone wrong? Or is there another explanation? Last week, a preliminary medical study of the diplomats was released, prompting further debate.

To explore all of this, Ian Sample spoke with with University of Pennsylvania’s Dr Douglas Smith, part of the team examining the Havana-based diplomats, Dr Mitchell Joseph Valdés-Sosa, director of the Cuban Neuroscience Center, and Dr Robert Bartholomew, a medical sociologist who specialises in mass psychogenic illness.