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Electric Shavers Rot Your Brain
Damek writes "According to UW researchers, prolonged exposure to low-level magnetic fields, similar to those emitted by such common household devices as blow dryers, electric blankets and razors, can damage brain cell DNA. The damage appears to be cumulative, so you'd best get rid of your electric razors & blankets ASAP! The full study is available online now. No word yet for Cell Phone users' brains..."
Wouldn't this only be a problem if you use these devices every day directly in contact with your skull? I mean, is the range really that far reaching? If the range really is that far reaching, what about power tools and such? Of course, I can think of a few people [McBride] I'd like to have power tools come in direct contact with their skull, but that's beside the point.
A programmer is a machine for converting coffee into code.
I'd say that apoptosis is better characterized as "natural cell death". It's a natural and essential part of the cell's life cycle, and certainly isn't as alarming as the article's tone suggests.
In fact, we have a word for cells that don't undergo apoptosis: Cancer.
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
How does staring at a monitor for 10-14 hours a day affect your brain? Not good is my guess.
What about headphones? If something powered only by a couple of AA batteries causes damage, how about my headphones with two silver dollar sized speakers in them?
uggg...
What about living directly under a ~40kV power line?
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.
mobile phones operate at frequencies many millions of times higher than the fields used in this study. cellular damage from exposure to low-frequency fields (if real) would surely be mediated by a different effect than cellular damage from exposure to high-frequency fields (if real).
i am skeptical of this study because a friend of mine who works in biomagnetics assures me that the effects of high B-fields on human tissue were carefully invesigated prior to the approval of MRI macines for use in biomedical imaging. any ill effects due to low-frequency or DC fields would have been found at that time. of course this is just hearsay and i am not qualified (or inclined) to assess this particular study on it's scientific merit! : )
Ever see that experiment where they stand a plate of solid aluminium on its edge in the center of an MRI scanner? Whe they let go, It falls down really slowly due to magnetic flux. (antiflux? its been a while since my last physics class :) )
That is not the same as 'starting to move on its own', granted. But magnetic fields do have an influence on non magnetic metals....
The Bigger The Headache The Bigger the Pill
Hell, pretty much anything becomes paramagnetic if you have strong enough fields. Some things have stronger diamagnetic properties than others though.
Aluminum is actually fairly paramagnetic, if I recall.
Back in 1997 a group even levitated a frog in a 16 Tesla field. How fun is that?
A preposition is a terrible thing to end a sentence with.
MRI tends to operate in the area of 1T, which is 2000 - 10000 times stronger than the fields used in this study.
There have been a number of studies in the past that have tried to link exposure to magnetic fields to cancer (particularly leukemia in children who live near high voltage power lines). It has generally been scoffed at, as the energies involved are not enough to break chemical bonds. However, by involving iron and free radicals, the energies involved can have an impact on reactivity.
Makes me wonder, given I did my Ph.D. dissertation in a lab that studied free radicals, using machines that generated fields of 0.3T (note, not mT) for hours at a time...
If you can't beat them, embrace and extend them.
No I'm not kidding.
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There used to be shavers that relied on the user using a squeezing action to pump a ratchet gear which kept an internal flywheel working.
They were manufactured by "Viceroy". I was given a broken one to play with when I was a kid. I was fascinated by it.
http://www.fixyourshaver.com/images/Viceroy_193
http://bakelite_world_2001.tripod.com/itsbake
Is there as causal link between women using vibrators and medical problems?
Anyway, before items such as those we may have seen on television appeared e.g. as found here: http://www.toysforusonline.com/productlstR.cfm?ca
there were clockwork alternatives, as theis article explains, (diagram half way down page):
http://www.libidomag.com/nakedbrunch/main
My hyperlinks aren't worth the paper they're printed on.
I wonder what the magetic fields from my '04 Prius' electric motor is doing? Also, has anyone else noticed their cassette tapes have a 2 week half life?
Maybe I should just disconnect myself from the so called grid, move out into the country and orienteer in the dark for entertainment. All I'll need is matches and a compass ... (?) .... AAAAIIIRRRGGH !!!
My God, I'm doomed....
Dean G.
The effect noted in the article is hypothesized to be caused by a Fenton reaction. This is the reaction of iron with other materials to form radicals. In this case it would be to form oxidizing radicals, such as hyperoxide species. These cause oxidative stress and damage if they're too concentrated. This was discussed in a recent /. article on high EM fields (http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/02/ 09/1223246&tid=). Their hypothesis comes from the fact that they used oxidizer scrubbers, like vitamin E, to prevent the effect. Oxidative stress is blamed for causing Parkinson's and other apoptosis based disorders, arthritis and non-viral immunosuppression (chronic fatigue/immune deficiency syndrome).
As I said then, we're sadly ignorant about the effects of water in its various conditions and products due to external forces, on our systems. We're starting to find out a lot of answers, good and bad, are focused on water. In this respect, this article makes perfect sense.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
I'd say that apoptosis is better characterized as "natural cell death". It's a natural and essential part of the cell's life cycle, and certainly isn't as alarming as the article's tone suggests.
Yes and no. There are certainly cells that naturally undergo apoptosis (a.k.a. programmed cell death) in their life cycles. If not for apoptosis, we'd all have webbed fingers. But apoptosis also seems to function as an "emergency self destruct" circumstance in which something has gone catastrophically wrong with a cell. And just as in the movies, it's likely that occasionally something manages to push that big red button by mistake...
Draping your welding cable over your shoulder and behind your back so that it passes near your wallet while welding will eventually ruin your credit cards too.
Why throw it over your shoulder like a continental soldier? It's easier to weld a clean bead and less tiring when you're not holding up 5 feet of #2 AWG cable with the stinger.
If the only tool you have is a hammer, you'd better start looking for a carpentry job.
Yeah... welcome to the club. Ahh the powers of an NMR magnet - erased my credit cards on my last day of work before going on vacation. Found myself in italy the next day with a fried card. Yay.
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