Ghost Murmur: CIA's alleged quantum heartbeat detector sparks scientific skepticism

What is the quantum 'Ghost Murmur' purportedly used in Iran? Scientists question CIA's claim of long-range heartbeat detection

Ghost Murmur was described as a futuristic CIA tool that could detect a heartbeat from vast distances. Physicists say the public story clashes with the basic limits of magnetic sensing On Monday afternoon President Donald Trump and CIA Director John Ratcliffe hinted at a secret technology that had helped locate a downed American Air Force officer hiding in a mountain crevice in southern Iran. By Tuesday, the New York Post reported that the CIA had deployed Ghost Murmur, a device that uses vaguely described "long-range quantum magnetometry" to find signals of human heartbeats, after which artificial intelligence software isolates each heartbeat from the noisy data. An unnamed source told the Post it was like "hearing a voice in a stadium, except the stadium is a thousand square miles of desert." Another line landed like a movie tagline: "In the right conditions, if your heart is beating, we will find you." It's a terrific story. It is also, according to scientists who study magnetic fields, almost certainly not true. The rescue was real -- the mission involved multiple aircraft and a survival beacon carried by the airman -- but Ghost Murmur, at least as publicly described, finds no support in decades of peer-reviewed physics, even with the help of AI, experts told me. Quantum magnetometers are real; they are ultraprecise at, for instance, detecting heart arrhythmias by measuring magnetic fields (via quantum properties) produced by the cardiac muscle. The problem is that the heart's magnetic field is weak. "At the surface of the chest, where you're about 10 centimeters away from the source, the magnetic field is just barely detectable," says John Wikswo, a professor of biomedical engineering and physics at Vanderbilt University. "Now, [if] instead of going 10 centimeters away -- which is a tenth of a meter -- you go a meter away, the amplitude of the signal has dropped to a thousandth of what it was." The signal becomes dramatically weaker at a kilometer, diminishing to around one trillionth of the strength. If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. Wikswo was the first scientist to measure the magnetic field of an isolated nerve and has been measuring the heart's magnetic field since the mid-1970s. The first such detection was done with two coils, each containing two million turns of wire, and then with a magnetometer "cooled to four degrees above absolute zero," Wikswo says. This magnetometer is not spy gear -- it is a cryogenic instrument designed to keep the rest of the universe out. To find a heartbeat, a quantum Ghost Murmur tool would have to contend not just with Earth's magnetic field and magnetic noise from natural and human-made electric currents but also with "the heartbeats of the sheep and dogs and jackrabbits -- whatever else is running around out there," says Chad Orzel, a professor of physics at Union College in New York State and author of How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog. He uses refrigerator magnets to illustrate the weakness of magnetic fields in general. "You have to get the magnet very, very close to the refrigerator before it snaps into place," he says. "That field drops off very quickly." Clinical sensors "are usually butted right up against your body ... at a distance of centimeters," Orzel adds. Even pattern-matching using artificial intelligence couldn't find a magnetic signal large enough to identify the presence of a person from kilometers away in a desert. Bradley Roth, a physicist at Oakland University and author of the 2023 review Biomagnetism: The First Sixty Years, agrees. "People have been measuring the magnetic field of the heart for 60 years, and usually it's done in a lab with shielding, and it's done just a few centimeters or a couple inches from the heart, and even then you can barely record it." A helicopter-borne version, he says, "would be not just a small advance, but it'd be a revolutionary advance from the state of the art." Orzel struggles to see how a Ghost Murmur could work. "There is really fascinating work being done using quantum magnetometry to measure heart rates," he says, and magnetic brain scans can now catch the tiny flickers of firing nerves. "But none of that is something that works over ranges of many miles." So why the story at all? Orzel has a guess: "Somebody yanking a reporter's chain." A "snarky, clever way to say, 'Of course I'm not going to tell you how we figured this out.'" Or a piece of disinformation, "to fool somebody into thinking that we actually have this secret technology."

CIA deployed secret "Ghost Murmur" AI to track down missing airman in Iran

Serving tech enthusiasts for over 25 years. TechSpot means tech analysis and advice you can trust. The big picture: The CIA reportedly used a secret AI tool called "Ghost Murmur" to locate and rescue an American airman after his F-15E Strike Eagle was shot down over Iran last week. The aircraft was carrying two crew members, both of whom ejected safely after being intercepted by a new Iranian air-defense system and were later rescued by the US military. The pilot was recovered shortly after the crash, and the second airman was found more than 24 hours later. According to two sources cited by the New York Post, Ghost Murmur can detect heartbeats from miles away. One source described it as being able to hear a voice in a large stadium, "except the stadium is a thousand square miles of desert." The sources also claimed that the tool can locate virtually anyone stranded under most conditions, saying, "If your heart is beating, we will find you." Ghost Murmur was reportedly developed by Lockheed Martin's elite Advanced Development Programs unit, known as Skunk Works. Established in 1943 as a secretive R&D team for designing state-of-the-art aircraft and fighter jets, Skunk Works has since been tasked with developing cutting-edge AI software for high-stakes surveillance, espionage, intelligence gathering, and other purposes. Sources claimed that Ghost Murmur was thoroughly tested on Black Hawk helicopters by Lockheed Martin and the US military, but this was the first time it was used in the field by the CIA. Neither the Pentagon nor Lockheed Martin has officially commented on the report, but President Trump seemingly referred to the new tool while speaking to reporters on Monday, describing a "very sophisticated" device used to locate and rescue the injured airman. The rescued serviceman, publicly identified as "Dude 44 Bravo," is a weapons systems officer with the US Air Force. He was found nearly two days after his fighter jet was shot down in southern Iran last week. Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed it had intercepted the aircraft using a new air-defense system, and the Iranian government announced a 10 billion-toman (around $60,000) reward for the airman's capture. According to one source, the barren landscape of the region provided an "ideal first operational use" of Ghost Murmur. The absence of vegetation and competing human signatures ensured minimal electromagnetic interference. Another factor aiding the search was the nighttime thermal contrast between a human body and the desert floor, giving the rescue crew "a secondary confirmation layer." Ghost Murmur was named to reflect its ability to detect the heartbeats of missing or lost individuals from miles away. While "murmur" refers to a heart rhythm, the "ghost" signifies someone who has disappeared and might have died were it not for this tool.

That 'quantum heartbeat detector' allegedly used to find the lost US pilot? Experts are skeptical

The recent rescue of a downed American F-15 fighter jet weapons systems officer -- known as "Dude 44 Bravo" -- from a desolate mountain crevice in southern Iran was a massive military achievement. The airman survived two days in the harsh terrain while Iranian troops scoured the area with a bounty on his head. He activated a physical Boeing-made Combat Survivor Evader Locator beacon that guided hundreds of U.S. troops to his location. It was a chaotic extraction where two rescue planes got stuck in a field, requiring even more aircraft and the ultimate destruction of the stranded jets, and was completed with no American casualties. However, anonymous government sources fed a an extra, high-tech narrative to the New York Post, one that reads like a fantasy plot device for a bad 90s spy movie. Which, seeing the reaction of experts, may in fact be the case. The Post's sources claim the CIA deployed a never-before-used tool called Ghost Murmur to locate him. According to the paper, the secret technology relies on advanced artificial intelligence and long-range quantum magnetometry to isolate the electromagnetic signal of a human heartbeat from background noise, which allowed them to locate the one person hiding in the desert. Mumbo-jumbo translation: The U.S. claims to have a new Mission Impossible toy to detect human heartbeats across large distances. President Donald Trump hinted the technology allowed the CIA to spot the airman from 40 miles away, while a source told the tabloid that "in the right conditions, if your heart is beating, we will find you."

Exclusive | 'Ghost Murmur,' a never-used secret tool, finds airman in Iran: 'If your heart is beating, we will find you'

WASHINGTON -- The CIA used a futuristic new tool called "Ghost Murmur" to find and rescue the second American airman who was shot down in southern Iran, The Post has learned. The secret technology uses long-range quantum magnetometry to find the electromagnetic fingerprint of a human heartbeat and pairs the data with artificial intelligence software to isolate the signature from background noise, two sources close to the breakthrough said. It was the tool's first use in the field by the spy agency -- and was alluded to Monday afternoon by President Trump and CIA Director John Ratcliffe at a White House briefing. "It's like hearing a voice in a stadium, except the stadium is a thousand square miles of desert," a source briefed on the program told The Post. "In the right conditions, if your heart is beating, we will find you." This source and another with knowledge of Lockheed Martin intelligence collection tools told The Post that "Ghost Murmur" was developed by Skunk Works, the aerospace giant's secretive advanced development division. The company's press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The technology has been successfully tested on Black Hawk helicopters for future potential use on F-35 fighter jets, the second source said. The missing and wounded weapons systems officer -- known publicly only as "Dude 44 Bravo" -- was hiding in a mountain crevice after his F-15 jet was shot down late last week, surviving two days in desolate terrain as Iranian troops scoured the area for the American with a bounty on his head. The relatively barren landscape made for "an ideal first operational use" of Ghost Murmur, the first source said." "The name is deliberate. 'Murmur' is a clinical term for a heart rhythm. 'Ghost' refers to finding someone who, for all practical purposes, has disappeared," the first source said. It was "about as clean an environment as you could ask for" because of low electromagnetic interference, "almost no competing human signatures, and at night the thermal contrast between a living body and the desert floor," which "gave operators a secondary confirmation layer." "Normally this signal is so weak that it can only be measured in a hospital setting with sensors pressed nearly against the chest," the source said. "But advances in a field known as quantum magnetometry -- specifically sensors built around microscopic defects in synthetic diamonds -- have apparently made it possible to detect these signals at dramatically greater distances." "The capability is not omniscient. It works best in remote, low-clutter environments and requires significant processing time," this person said. It was unclear to The Post's sources how long the processing time was in this use. It's also unclear if the technology may have additional wartime offensive uses. Although the missing airman had activated a Boeing-made Combat Survivor Evader Locator beacon, officials said his precise whereabouts remained uncertain to search and rescue teams. The pivotal moment in the frantic two-day search and a dramatic rescue mission came when the "Ghost Murmur" pinpointed the aviator's location -- with the first source describing the two technologies as both being useful in ball-parking and then confirming the location. "He had to come out [of the crevice] to send the beacon," the first source said. "It was less important the signal they sent and more important that he had to come out to send [it]." Trump and Ratcliffe hinted at the new technology while briefing the press on the successive yet dramatic mission, which included hundreds of US troops and two rescue planes getting stuck in a field, requiring more planes and the destruction of the stranded jets -- with no American casualties. Ratcliffe, who took no reporter questions at the briefing, said that on Saturday morning the spy agency "achieved our primary objective by finding and providing confirmation that one of America's best and bravest was alive and concealed in a mountain crevice -- still invisible to the enemy, but not to the CIA." "That confirmation was relayed by Secretary [of War Pete] Hegseth to the president, and the operation quickly moved to the execution phase," the CIA director said. Trump told the press that the CIA spotted the missing American from "40 miles away." "It's like finding a needle in a haystack, finding this pilot, and the CIA was unbelievable," Trump said Monday. "The CIA was very responsible for finding this little speck." The president said that Ratcliffe "did a phenomenal job that night -- he did something that I don't know if you want to talk about it. If you want, you can. I'm not sure he's supposed to." The president joked that the technology "might be classified, in which case I'd have to put him in jail if he talks about it and I don't want to put him in jail. He doesn't deserve that." Trump has himself revealed the contours of secretive new technologies -- including telling The Post in January that he had deployed a weapon called "The Discombobulator" to disable Venezuelan defenses during the Jan. 3 raid that captured the country's dictator Nicolas Maduro to face US drug and weapons charges. The secret nature of Ghost Murmur was "basically why everyone's been so cagey about how [the airman] was actually found," the first source said. "I don't think people even know this technology is possible from this distance."

The secret, never-before-used CIA tool that helped find airman downed in Iran

The CIA used a futuristic new tool called "Ghost Murmur" to find and rescue the second American airman who was shot down in southern Iran, The Post has learned. The secret technology uses long-range quantum magnetometry to find the electromagnetic fingerprint of a human heartbeat and pairs the data with artificial intelligence software to isolate the signature from background noise, two sources close to the breakthrough said. It was the tool's first use in the field by the spy agency -- and was alluded to Monday afternoon by President Trump and CIA Director John Ratcliffe at a White House briefing. "It's like hearing a voice in a stadium, except the stadium is a thousand square miles of desert," a source briefed on the program told The Post. "In the right conditions, if your heart is beating, we will find you." This source and another with knowledge of Lockheed Martin intelligence collection tools told The Post that Ghost Murmur was developed by Skunk Works, the aerospace giant's secretive advanced development division. The company declined to comment. The technology has been successfully tested on Black Hawk helicopters for future potential use on F-35 fighter jets, the second source said. The missing and wounded weapons systems officer -- known publicly only as "Dude 44 Bravo" -- was hiding in a mountain crevice after his F-15 jet was shot down late last week, surviving two days in desolate terrain as Iranian troops scoured the area for the American with a bounty on his head. The relatively barren landscape made for "an ideal first operational use" of Ghost Murmur, the first source said. "The name is deliberate. 'Murmur' is a clinical term for a heart rhythm. 'Ghost' refers to finding someone who, for all practical purposes, has disappeared," the source said. It was "about as clean an environment as you could ask for" because of low electromagnetic interference, "almost no competing human signatures, and at night the thermal contrast between a living body and the desert floor," which "gave operators a secondary confirmation layer." "Normally this signal is so weak that it can only be measured in a hospital setting with sensors pressed nearly against the chest," the source said. "But advances in a field known as quantum magnetometry -- specifically sensors built around microscopic defects in synthetic diamonds -- have apparently made it possible to detect these signals at dramatically greater distances." "The capability is not omniscient. It works best in remote, low-clutter environments and requires significant processing time," this person said. It was unclear to The Post's sources how long the processing time was in this use. It's also unclear if the technology may have additional wartime offensive uses. Although the missing airman had activated a Boeing-made Combat Survivor Evader Locator beacon, his precise whereabouts remained uncertain to search and rescue teams. A pivotal moment in the search and rescue mission came when Ghost Murmur detected the aviator -- with the first source describing the two technologies as both being useful. "He had to come out [of the crevice] to send the beacon," the first source said. "It was less important the signal they sent and more important that he had to come out to send [it]." Trump and Ratcliffe hinted at the new technology while briefing the press on the successive yet dramatic mission, which included hundreds of US troops and two rescue planes getting stuck in a field, requiring more planes and the destruction of the stranded jets -- with no American casualties. Ratcliffe, who took no reporter questions at the briefing, said that on Saturday morning the spy agency "achieved our primary objective by finding and providing confirmation that one of America's best and bravest was alive and concealed in a mountain crevice -- still invisible to the enemy, but not to the CIA." "That confirmation was relayed by Secretary [of War Pete] Hegseth to the president, and the operation quickly moved to the execution phase," the CIA director said. Trump told the press that the CIA spotted the missing American from "40 miles away." "It's like finding a needle in a haystack, finding this pilot, and the CIA was unbelievable," Trump said Monday. "The CIA was very responsible for finding this little speck." The president said that Ratcliffe "did a phenomenal job that night -- he did something that I don't know if you want to talk about it. If you want, you can. I'm not sure he's supposed to." The president joked that the technology "might be classified, in which case I'd have to put him in jail if he talks about it and I don't want to put him in jail. He doesn't deserve that." Trump himself has revealed the contours of secret new technologies -- including telling The Post in January that he deployed a weapon called "The Discombobulator" to disable Venezuelan defenses during the Jan. 3 raid that captured the country's dictator Nicolas Maduro to face US drug and weapons charges. The secret nature of Ghost Murmur was "basically why everyone's been so cagey about how [the airman] was actually found," the first source said. "I don't think people even know this technology is possible from this distance."