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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.

4 of 298 comments (clear)

  1. Right by SnarfQuest · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Or, you could probably also say, that plants given lots of sunlight and with a protective barrier against insects and other vermin grow better than those placed in a dark alley filled with rats of unusual size.

    Like most of these studies that the news media have orgasms over, I suspect that they would be able to find whatever they wanted to prove. Science without mathematics, indeed.

    --
    Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
  2. Re:Not mine. by thrawn_aj · · Score: 0, Redundant

    1 kW? And a gun? i.e. directional? You probably burned the shit out of them. A 1 kW infrared gun would be just as (if not more) deadly. More energy absorption in fact. Anything in excess is evil. Sit near a large speaker, go deaf and then shout (naturally) that audio waves are evil too. Did you know that you can die from too much oxygen? Too much water?

  3. Maybe it was a response. by JDeane · · Score: 0, Redundant

    The plants that had bigger leaves may have been a response to the experiment.

    I hear plants grow bigger leaves when they grow in shaded area's so maybe that was the difference.

    Something about needing sunlight and competing with other tree's to get at the sunlight all that jazz.

  4. Shielding ... by PPH · · Score: 0, Redundant

    ...probably keeps deer from snacking on them.

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    Have gnu, will travel.