sábado, 24 de abril de 2010

UM ESTUDO INÚTIL SOBRE TELEMÓVEIS


Habitual destaque semanal à coluna electrónica de Robert Park "What's New", desta vez sobre um estudo grande e caro sobre segurança de telemóveis que o físico considera pura e simplesmente inútil:

"COSMOS: THE COHORT STUDY ON MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS.

Yesterday, the cell-phone controversy was taken to a new and substantially lower level. The Cohort Study on Mobile Communications (COSMOS) was launched in the UK to determine whether microwave radiation from wireless devices can induce cancer. It will track 250,000 users for 30 years to catch any slow growing cancers. Note the built-in job protection. The study will look for neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s as well. Participants aged 18-69 are being recruited in Britain, Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark. In Britain, COSMOS is inviting 2.4 million cell phone users to take part, and hoping 100,000 or so will accept. If they do the study really well, it will confirm Albert Einstein’s 1905 explanation of the photoelectric effect, for which he was awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize. Of course, the photoelectric effect is confirmed thousands of times annually by students in elementary physics lab courses. If it is done badly, this tedious and expensive study could perpetuate the public’s unfounded fear of radiation below the ultraviolet threshold. This must be stopped."


Robert Park

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