Microsoft’s B87 anechoic chamber in Redmond, Washington is the world’s quietest place, according to Guinness World Records. The room is used to test audio and computer equipment and is surrounded by layers of steel and concrete to prevent echoes. Visitors are not allowed, but the Orfield Labs in Minneapolis, the previous record holder, absorbs 99.99% of all sound. Silence has been linked to health benefits, including the creation of new brain cells, lower blood pressure, and a stronger immune system.
If silence is golden, then Microsoft built the Fort Knox of quiet spaces.
According to Guinness World Records, the B87 anechoic chamber inside Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington is the quietest place in the world, with an ambient noise reading reaching 20 decibels below the human hearing threshold .
The room, which the company uses to test audio and computer equipment, is built like an onion, surrounded by layer after layer of steel and concrete. It rests on springs designed to prevent vibration, so not only does the room prevent echoes, it’s so quiet that if you stay in it long enough, you’ll hear your heartbeat, notice your bones make a grinding sound when you walk, and a humming in your ears it will become almost unbearable.
Microsoft doesn’t allow visitors into the room, so if you want to experience such silence, you’ll have to go to the quietest place, Orfield Labs in Minneapolis, which held the title of “world’s quietest” until Microsoft took the record in 2015. The Orfield site absorbs 99.99 percent of all sound, which owner Steven Orfield says is both amazing and scary: “‘In the anechoic chamber, you become the sound,’ he said, reason so no one is allowed to stay for long periods.
Such sweet silence:
A 2013 study found that spending several hours in silence can promote the creation of new brain cells.
The World Health Organization has labeled noise pollution a “modern plague,” linking it to heart disease and tinnitus (ringing in the ears).
Silence has been shown to lower blood pressure, strengthen the immune system and prevent plaque in the arteries.
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