Einstein Cell Phones

Ronald Herberman, director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, shocked just about all law-abiding scientists (according to the laws of physics, that is) with his warning last week to his faculty and staff that cell phones could pose a cancer risk.
It's embarrassing because this time a very intelligent person is to say, not just another nutcase.
The basics still ring true, and Herberman admitted as much: There is no convincing evidence that cell phone radiation causes cancer. Nor is there plausible biological or physical reasoning for which cause cancer.

Herberman said his warning is based on early, unpublished data from a study of 13 countries on the use of cell phones. Scientists tend to distrust the preliminary results, and many are puzzled about why such a warning would Herberman severe and the audience.
Herberman countered that until there is definitive proof that cell phones are safe, users should practice some caution.

Play It Safe Herberman recommendations to minimize exposure are a godsend, but not for the reasons he intended. Limit conversations to a few minutes? Yes, especially when it comes to some stupid shoe sale you need to tell everyone. Do not use cell phones on buses and trains to limit exposure to second hand? Yes, especially when I'm sleeping.

Limit use in cars, because high speeds force the phone to maximize power to find relay? Yes, yes: Let's shorten the sticker reading "Shut Up and Drive" just "shut up". This will surely save lives as driving less means less talkative of fatal traffic accidents.

If only Crazy Frong ringtone caused cancer.
But how should we be cautious? Devra Lee Davis, a colleague Herberman, told The Associated Press, "The question is do you want to play Russian roulette with your brain."

Sounds scary, but Russian roulette is played with a ball in a six-shooter. Cell phone Russian roulette has perhaps one bullet in a gun that can hold several million dollars.

Einstein and cell phones away from a scientific illiterate technophobe, Herberman is author or co-authored over 700 articles in peer-cancer in the 1960s. He is smarter than me and likely you.

Yet Einstein, in a way, disproved the idea that radiation from cell phones cause cancer. This is called the photoelectric effect: light is composed of photons which, when above a threshold energy, can dislodge electrons from atoms, for example, breaking of chemical bonds in DNA and cause cancerous mutations.

This threshold energy is near the ultraviolet part of the electromagnetic spectrum, thousands of times more energetic than radio waves from mobile phone. UV, X rays and gamma rays cause cancer. These photons are like golf balls, whereas radio photons are like cotton balls. You can throw millions of cotton balls against a window, it just will not break.

Heated arguments and hoaxes despite myriad studies showing no increased risk of cancer by up to 20 years of cell phone use, some scientists continue to probe as they should, given the ubiquity of cell phones.
An alternative theory is that the heat generated by cell phones can cook brain cells. This notion inspired a well-known hoax a decade ago, a demonstration of two cell phones could cook an egg in 65 minutes. The lark seemed plausible and was illustrated in a series of photos on the Internet.

Then Cardo Systems, a supplier of Bluetooth headsets, made videos of cells phones team into groups of three or four to pop popcorn. Kernels are digitally removed from the video popcorn fell on the table. This publicity stunt proved successful enough to convince many of the radiation power of cell phones.

A problem with the theory of heat.