The End of Quiet

Historical perspective: The National Radio Quiet Zone, 13,000 square miles of mountainous terrain with few cell towers or other transmitters, is located near Green Bank, W.Va., a town that adheres to the strictest ban on technology in the United States. According to Pagan Kennedy of The New York Times in 2019, the residents do without not only cellphones but also Wi-Fi, microwave ovens, and any other devices that generate electromagnetic signals. The ban exists to protect the Green Bank Observatory, a cluster of radio telescopes in a mountain valley. Conventional telescopes are like superpowered eyes. The instruments at Green Bank are more like superhuman ears—they can tune into frequencies from the lowest to the highest ends of the spectrum. The telescopes are powerful enough to detect the death throes of a star, but also terribly vulnerable to our loud world. Even a short-circuiting electric toothbrush could blot out the whisper of the Big Bang.