A place of profound silence has once again made headlines. Orfield Laboratories in Minnesota has been officially recognized by Guinness World Records for having the quietest place on Earth, an anechoic chamber that achieved a new world-record low of -24.9 decibels (dBA) in November 2021. This remarkable feat surpasses the previous record and solidifies the laboratory’s reputation for creating an environment where sound is almost completely absent.
The chamber, designed to absorb 99.99% of all sound, is a marvel of acoustic engineering. It’s built as a “room within a room”—a steel box suspended on springs inside a larger concrete and steel chamber. The interior is lined with a unique pattern of wedge-shaped fiberglass foam, which lines the walls, ceiling, and even the floor, eliminating all echoes and sound reflections.
In this unprecedented quiet, visitors often experience a disorienting sensation as their brains struggle to find external auditory cues. The silence is so profound that the only sounds left to hear are those produced by the human body itself. People inside have reported hearing their heartbeats pounding loudly, the faint whoosh of blood flowing through their veins, and the sound of their own breathing. For some, this intense auditory experience can be so overwhelming that they have difficulty remaining standing.
Beyond setting world records and providing a unique sensory experience, the anechoic chamber serves a critical scientific and commercial purpose. It is used by companies to test the noise output of their products, from quiet-running appliances to the unique sound of a motorcycle engine. NASA has also utilized such chambers to help astronauts adapt to the silence of outer space.
