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Comment by jakebasile | Hacker News Reader

Can someone who is smarter than me tell me if I should add this to the long list of ways I worry about dying?

This is measuring how much of the RF energy is absorbed. Which on It's own isn't a risk. It says nothing of interaction with DNA etc.

I think that insect population collapse is very worrisome. Some very intelligent people claim that seems to be going towards that path. Electromagnetic pollution one of the main source of its decline. So, maybe yes.

"Some very intelligent people claim"

Please be specific - which intelligent people? Who disagrees with them?

"Electromagnetic pollution one of the main source of its decline"

What are the other sources? How do they compare to electromagnetic pollution in terms of impact?

I think Elizabeth Kolbert with her book "The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History" did a great job on the overall subject. "Mobile phone and Wi-Fi radiation in particular opens the calcium channels in certain cells, meaning they absorb more calcium ions." That seems not be very good for insects. [1] There are many, good articles coming up. [2] and anecdotal evidence [3] Not sure, of course but the science is unequivocal in that the impact is significant, not negligible.

[1]: https://phys.org/news/2020-09-mobile-insects-german.html

[2]: https://sci-hub.st/10.1016/j.pathophys.2009.01.007

[3]: https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.10...

The first source use the word "probably" to describe the impact and there's no mention of how large an impact is found

Second article lists it as a "potential cause"

Third article defines it as a "possible cause"

I have a hard time seeing how "the science is unequivocal in that the impact is significant, not negligible.", from the articles presented.

What I read is that EMR is a possible cause among many, like known contributors such as loss of habitat and pesticide use, but there further research is needed.

This is not the same as saying it's not possible that the effect is true - there just isn't enough evidence to support a definitive conclusion on the impact at this point.

I'm not an environmental scientist, so I don't have the required knowledge on the current state of research in the area. There might be newer research that is solid enough to warrant making a definitive statement, but what I read in these articles definitely does not.

Nobody said a definitive conclusion or statement, but this is an overlooked AND significant one. I'm not an environmental scientist either, but I do see evidence of this point as a hobbyist beekeeper and casual reader of the science literature. The effect is true, and I agree with you, more research is needed.

As someone else mentioned this looks a bit worrying, until you realize that 5g has much lower penetration (and this experiment was carried out with tissue with no skull/skin etc surrounding it), that a live brain is actively being cooled by bloodflow, and also were you to carry out this same experiment with regular sunlight the graph would be off the charts even compared to 5g.

Although research like this is definitely very important. I would just be wary of drawing conclusions without listening to the opinions of people with more knowledge in the field than you or I.

I would love to read an article about your long list of ways you worry about dying

Sure, somewhere above climate change, nuclear war, but below COVID-19.

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