Is the ‘Ghost Murmur’ quantum device possible? Scientists are skeptical
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
A view of wreckage and remains of a downed F-15 fighter jet in Iran on April 5, 2026.
Photo by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps/Anadolu via Getty Images
On Monday afternoon, President Donald Trump and CIA Director John Ratcliffe alluded to a technology that was instrumental in locating a missing American Air Force officer in a mountain crevice in southern Iran. By Tuesday, the New York Post reported that the CIA employed Ghost Murmur, a device that supposedly uses “long-range quantum magnetometry” to detect human heartbeats, with artificial intelligence software sorting through the data to isolate individual heartbeats. According to an unnamed source, this technology was akin to hearing a voice in a vast desert, and under the right conditions, the device could locate any beating heart.
While the narrative is captivating, scientists specializing in magnetic fields are doubtful of its veracity. The rescue mission indeed took place, involving various aircraft and a survival beacon from the airman, but the concept of Ghost Murmur as described lacks scientific backing, even with AI assistance, according to experts.
Quantum magnetometers do exist and are known for their precision, such as in detecting heart arrhythmias by measuring magnetic fields generated by cardiac muscles. However, the magnetic field of the heart is inherently weak. John Wikswo, a professor at Vanderbilt University, explains that at the chest’s surface, the magnetic field is barely detectable. Moving just a meter away reduces the signal’s strength to a thousandth of its original amplitude, and this weakens significantly over a kilometer.
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Wikswo, a pioneer in measuring isolated nerve magnetic fields and heart magnetic fields since the mid-1970s, notes that initial detections required sophisticated equipment like coils with millions of wire turns and magnetometers cooled to near absolute zero. These instruments are designed for precise, cryogenic conditions, not espionage.
A hypothetical Ghost Murmur device would have to distinguish heartbeats from other magnetic noise, including the Earth’s magnetic field and currents from both natural and artificial sources, as well as the heartbeats of animals like sheep, dogs, and jackrabbits, says Chad Orzel, a physics professor at Union College. He uses the example of refrigerator magnets to demonstrate how quickly magnetic field strength diminishes with distance, making long-range detection implausible.
Bradley Roth from Oakland University agrees, stating that while heart magnetic fields have been studied for decades, measurements are typically done in controlled labs with shielding, just centimeters from the heart, and are barely detectable even then. A device capable of helicopter-borne detection would represent a groundbreaking leap from current technology.
Orzel expresses skepticism about the feasibility of Ghost Murmur, noting that while advancements in quantum magnetometry and brain scans are impressive, they do not work over extensive distances. He suggests the story might be a clever misinformation tactic or a humorous way to withhold information.
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