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Is The World's Quietest Room In Minnesota?

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Just about everyone needs some peace and quiet every now and then, and there's a place in the Twin Cities that might be able to give you all the quiet you need and then some.

Orfield Laboratories in Minneapolis has a room that blocks 99.99 percent of all sound, according to a report in Tecca, an online magazine that follows technology. A number of companies use it to test out the loudness of their products.

But just because the room is quiet doesn't mean it's peaceful.

Tecca reports that researchers at NASA are using the room to test the effects of silence on people.

They found that when humans are in such a silent place, our ears amplify things like our own heartbeat.

After several minutes, people start to hallucinate. The longest anyone lasted was 45 minutes.

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