Inaudible sound might be the next frontier in wildfire defense

A decade ago, two college students built a fire extinguisher that snuffed out a fire using nothing more than a booming 10-inch subwoofer. The internet lapped it up, and Jimmy Fallon even booked a demonstration for “The Tonight Show.”

But since that brief viral moment, there hasn’t been much more than a whisper about the technology.

It’s not for lack of trying. The college kids weren’t the first to prove the concept. DARPA was on the case in 2012; and a search of the scientific literature reveals dozens of researchers investigating the idea.