Study Hints Ambient Radio Waves May Affect Plant Growth

dwguenther writes "A Lyons (Colorado) area woman with no academic pedigree has published a scientific paper in the International Journal of Forestry Research about the adverse effects of radio waves on aspen seedlings. Katie Haggerty, who lives north of Steamboat Mountain, found in a preliminary experiment done near her house that aspens shielded from electromagnetic radiation were healthier than those that were not. 'I found that the shielded seedlings produced more growth, longer shoots, bigger leaves, and more total leaf area. The shielded group produced 60 percent more leaf area and 74 percent more shoot length than a mock-shielded group,' she said." This was not a definitive study, as its author readily admits — it's hard to see how a double-blind study could even be designed in this area — but it was refereed.

Comments

Re:Right

[SnarfQuest]

And, how did these shields affect the abaility of rain (water) to reach the plants? Were the ones in the farady cage given more water/care than the others? Were they all given the same exact soil mix to grow in? Just how unbiased was this person? If they were hoping for a specific result, there are a lot of things they could do in an "experiment" like this, even without thinking that they are doing such things. That is why the caretaker of an experiment should not know which sample is the one they are hoping will do the best.

Heck, she could have allowed her dog to pee on the unshielded ones, which would account for the color differences. Unless you protect a study like this from bias, you might as well not bother doing it in the first place. It's only good as just another media fear blitz, and not much else.