Earlier quoted context omitted.
PS: so in electromagnetic radiation, shorter wavelengths carry more energy, whereas in sound, longer wavelengths (bass) carry more energy. (Right?) I'm not physics-savvy enough why these effects are opposite; is there an explanation for this?
"More energy" can mean two different things. In the case of sound, only one of those meanings--the amplitude of the wave--is relevant: soft sounds have lower amplitude and loud sounds have higher amplitude. The frequency of the wave, as jessaustin pointed out, is independent of how soft or loud it is, and for sound, there isn't any useful sense in which any frequency carries "more energy" than any other frequency, gi…
Security Analysis of a Full-Body Scanner
61–65 of 65 posts
Re: Security Analysis of a Full-Body Scanner
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
I like this response a lot and am going to adapt it to explain this to my radiation-paranoid family. The concept of wavelength as the sole distinction between these types of radiation is probably abstract to most non-science-educated people. Can you (or anyone else) think of a good concrete real-world analogy of different types of X that vary only in Y and some X are harmless but those with Y are not? Maybe an analog…
The sand/bullet one is probably apt, if indirect. The issue is that different "kicks" get absorbed in different ways by the stuff which makes up your cells. One gets absorbed by the chemical bonds and tears them apart; one gets absorbed by the molecule as a whole. I think maybe the best way to give the idea is to contrast a car crash with a bullet at the same energy. According to Wikipedia, a really strong rifle cart…
What's your take on the possibility of damage suffered from exposure to RF radiation? There are reports from credible institutions (/u/jamoes mentions one above) that RFR, despite causing "only heating", may have detrimental impacts.
When I see lists of studies like this [1], it's hard to know what to think. Are most of these weak studies or unsettled science?
I know this is a really broad question; I'm obviously not asking for comments on specific studies listed those tables. I'm curious about comments on the seeming contradiction between the observation that at a theoretical level RF radiation at moderate intensity is thought to be known to be provably harmless, and the large number of reports of observed non-trivial(?) effects.
Re: Security Analysis of a Full-Body Scanner
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
A light-bulb's light also doesn't penetrate solid objects. It's clearly a different type of radiation than standard light. Our bodies aren't subject to millimeter wave radiation in nature, so they're not really evolved to defend against it. I'm not against further studies of millimeter wave radiation and its effects on humans, I just don't want to be a guinea pig in those studies.
Umm...glass is a "solid object" the last time I checked. And no, it's electromagnetic radiation, period -- it's a different wavelength (just like blue is a different wavelength than red). Look for the reply from the physicist for greater detail as to why you're completely confused, though. I opted out of the Backscatter X-Ray machines due to what seemed like poor science; the MM wave devices may violate privacy, but…
Re: Security Analysis of a Full-Body Scanner
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
The sand/bullet one is probably apt, if indirect. The issue is that different "kicks" get absorbed in different ways by the stuff which makes up your cells. One gets absorbed by the chemical bonds and tears them apart; one gets absorbed by the molecule as a whole. I think maybe the best way to give the idea is to contrast a car crash with a bullet at the same energy. According to Wikipedia, a really strong rifle cart…
Thanks. What's your take on the possibility of damage suffered from exposure to RF radiation? There are reports from credible institutions (/u/jamoes mentions one above) that RFR, despite causing "only heating", may have detrimental impacts. When I see lists of studies like this [1], it's hard to know what to think. Are most of these weak studies or unsettled science? I know this is a really broad question; I'm obvio…
What I mean is -- and I'm not necessarily accusing bioinitiative.org; I'm just stating that it's something we have to watch out for -- it's possible for a lot of reports from credible institutions that have good, correct studies warning about X, even if X is totally harmless.
One of the easiest ways for this to happen is the simple fact that at least one in twenty journal results should be wrong, because that's how 95% confidence intervals work. If a thousand 95% studies are done on a safe thing then you should ideally have 50 studies which can't make that conclusion.
Let me speak about a case which is related which I do know a little about; the Interphone study. This was a massive international case-control study on the effect of mobile phone radiation (also microwaves) on various forms of brain cancer. You can see one of the full articles reporting the data here:
http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/content/39/3/675.long
In this case, bioinitiative.org released a press release stating "Today’s release of the final results of the ten-year long World Health Organization INTERPHONE Study confirms previous reports showing what many experts have warned – that regular use of a cell phone by adults can significantly increase the risk of glioma by 40% with 1640 hours or more of use (this is about one-half hour per day over ten years). Tumors were more likely to occur on the side of the head most used for calling."
I will state that that press release -- not necessarily the whole bioinitiative.org project; I don't know enough to say that, but that press release in particular -- is cherry-picking the data significantly. Lots of bloggers picked up this headline too, but I don't think they read the scientific study that they were blogging about (as a rule).
If you actually look at that study you'll see -- to take table 2 as my example -- that there is a table of 50 results presented with 95% confidence intervals. Of those 50 results, a shocking twenty of them result a statistically-siginificant observed preventative effect of cell phone radiation on meningioma and glioma while only one of them (the glioma case that they cite) showed a statistically observed damaging effect. The authors' actual conclusion was much more meek, "Overall, no increase in risk of glioma or meningioma was observed with use of mobile phones. There were suggestions of an increased risk of glioma at the highest exposure levels, but biases and error prevent a causal interpretation. The possible effects of long-term heavy use of mobile phones require further investigation." (There may even be simple correlations which would cause cell-phone users to have less cancer -- maybe strong social bonds protect against cancer and cause cell phone use; or maybe people who use their brains more find the distraction of cell phones harder to resist and also have a higher turnover in brain cells, making it harder for cancer cells to find purchase, or something.)
As far as I know, that is the largest study that has ever been done on cancer, but there may be other "detrimental impacts" (as you call them) which are not cancer, of course. You would need to consult someone who has a holistic view of the info, not a physicist who happened to read that one study when it came out in 2010.
Re: Security Analysis of a Full-Body Scanner
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks. What's your take on the possibility of damage suffered from exposure to RF radiation? There are reports from credible institutions (/u/jamoes mentions one above) that RFR, despite causing "only heating", may have detrimental impacts. When I see lists of studies like this [1], it's hard to know what to think. Are most of these weak studies or unsettled science? I know this is a really broad question; I'm obvio…
That's really hard for me to answer, because while I can address the physics side pretty well the physiology side is not really my forte. More importantly, you have to have someone who knows the studies holistically rather than piecemeal, because of the numbers. What I mean is -- and I'm not necessarily accusing bioinitiative.org; I'm just stating that it's something we have to watch out for -- it's possible for a lo…