Friday, Febuary 4, 2011
It can be safely argued that the biggest threat to life on this planet is
ignorance, followed perhaps by global warming. The lights over most of the
Northeastern United States and parts of Canada began to flicker at 4:11 pm
on Thursday, August 14, 2003. It was the start of the most extensive
electrical blackout in history, covering the entire Northeast and parts of
Canada, yet no one understood how it happened. Five electric power
companies that shared a common grid pointed fingers at one another. The
purpose of the grid is clear: electric power cannot be stored. Power
companies must generate the exact amount of power that is being used,
adjusting to every electrical switch that is thrown. Linking power
companies in a grid should mean a statistically smoother demand, thus
reducing local blackouts. But the grid has grown so complex no one
understood it. The Recovery and Reinvestment Act called for a smarter
electric grid that could accurately anticipate demand. This would start
with the use of smart power meters. For most of you, the meter reader
hacking his way through your shrubs to get at the power meter has been
replaced by a Wi-Fi that can update consumption at frequent intervals.
Accurate data on power consumption patterns would benefit both the power
company and the consumer. As WN has repeatedly observed, the energy of
microwave photons is about 1 million times too low to cause ionization. No
ionization, no cancer. If the laws of physics don't work for you, I should
point out that the radiation emitted by a smart meter adds up to about one
Watt when it's transmitting, which it usually is not; that's less than a
cell phone. Moreover, people don't usually hold their power meter against
the side of their head for hours. However, if you choose to crouch down
behind the rhododendrons and hug your power meter all day long you will
still suffer no ill effects from microwaves. That's the great thing about
being a mammal; we maintain a constant temperature winter and summer. But
even if you're a frog, I don't think 1 W would be a problem. However, if
you're an Indian frog it might be another matter.
Last year the World Health Organization completed a 10 year, $14 million
study of mobile phone use in 13 countries. The WHO study concluded "more
study is needed,"http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN10/wn052110.html
.
India has responded to the WHO call with a 58-page study of its own
according to today's Science Insider. An Indian government panel warns
that emissions from cell phones may pose a hazard to public health. In a
comment certain to arouse controversy, one panelist wrote that Indians may
be more vulnerable to such radiation than Europeans because they live in a
tropical climate and, on average, have a lower body fat content.
In 1543 Nicolaus Copernicus published De revolutionibus orbium coelestium
describing a heliocentric solar system in which Earth is just one of
several planets orbiting our Sun. Were there people on these other
planets? It was a dangerous question. Religion claimed title to creation,
and heresy was punishable by death. Four centuries later, the question
still gnaws at us. But the Kepler exoplanets are far, far away. What
could we see with a super telescope.
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