Marconi Madness

Earlier this week one of my students chose electromagnetic radiation as an oral presentation topic. He did a great job of describing what it is and how it might affect us. Of course it wouldn't be pleasant to be in the part of the spectrum that microwave ovens use. It seems as though we're in the middle of a big experiment though. We've already been playing with radio for a hundred years. That isn't long. It certainly isn't enough time to establish its long-term effects on humans.

It's not radio or television broadcasting that concerns me much. After all, I expect these technologies to decrease in importance. More and more media will be heading to us via the Internet. At first blush, I might have thought that would mean a reduction in EMR exposure. Yet on a tiny bit of reflection, I see that's rather silly. There's hardly a location at my technical institute that's not blanketed with wireless signals. At this moment my text is travelling through my living room to my wireless router. I'm on my notebook now and I can also 'see' at least ten or a dozen networks. Cell phones, G3 broadband, powerlines, and applicances and equipment surround us.

At no time in history have people been subjected to so much background electromagnetic radiation.