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Hitting the Books: How a radio telescope cost this West Virginia town its modernity
The Quiet Zone, by journalist Stephen Kurczy, is the story of a sleepy small town that hosts the Green Bank radio telescope. But the presence of this scientific installation comes at a terrible price.
West Virginia's 'Quiet Zone' becomes refuge for those on the run from wireless technology
There's a 13,000-square-mile section of West Virginia known as the Quiet Zone where there's no WiFi, no cell service, and strict regulations placed on any device that could pollute the airwaves. Those unique conditions are enforced (and aided by the surrounding mountains) to protect the radio telescopes in the area from interference, and it's hardly anything new -- as The Huffington Post notes, Wired did an extensive profile of the zone back in 2004 (the area itself was established in 1958). But as the BBC recently reported, the Quiet Zone is also now serving as something of a refuge for people who believe that wireless technology makes them sick -- a condition sometimes called Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity (or EHS). Those claims are, of course, in dispute by most medical professionals, but that apparently hasn't stopped folks from calling the local real estate agent "every other week or so" to inquire about a place in the zone. [Image courtesy NRAO]
