[orwin]

For it to do enough damage to make the inner ear fail temporarily and give you brain damage without burning anything seems a bit unbelievable though. Not even a first degree burn? I think even something as unlikely as remote-activated poison is a better explanation.

[ImPostingOnHN]

Different frequencies interact differently with wall materials or window materials or hydrous, organic matter. For example, many substances are pervious to microwave radiation and will remain cool while an egg beneath them cooks.

This is true for your skin in some cases, too: the frequencies which will quickly heat skin are a subset of the frequencies which can hurt you at high energy. For example, X-rays will do the latter a lot faster.

And that's only the considerations if you treat the skin and brain as just a hunk of stuff versus a ridiculously complex meat-computer. For an example, see the "microwave auditory effect"[0]. This effect originates inside the brain, not the ear. High levels of electromagnetic energy tends to harm even electronic computers, and they have no meat to deal with!

0 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave_auditory_effect

[orwin]

That's actually something I didn't think about! So the EM wave don't interact with the liquid, but the brain electric signal. I don't know if it is possible, but it is a far, far more likely than something that fry the inner ear/brain.

Ok, I'd rank it ahead of the poison theory, still behind the mass psychosis because of Hanlon though.