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Comment by mark-r | Hacker News Reader

Radar operators in the Arctic learned that they could stay warm by standing in front of their antennas. The first microwave ovens were called "Radar Ranges".

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My grandfather was an EE involved in early radar/microwave comm research and repeatedly used the beams to warm his hands and feet when in the field. He was exposed to who knows how much and developed serious sensory and circulatory problems later in life, as well as an unknown brain issue.

He was also around some of the overly-exuberant government tests of troop exposure to the immediate after-effects of atomic fission.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/Exercise...

There is a long standing dispute between WW2 engineers at Raytheon vs. those at the UK's Telecommunications Research Establishment [0] about who was the first to cook sausages on a radar set.

(I previously worked at one of the modern successor organisations to TRE. I distinctly remember as a very young software engineer being told by an elderly staff scientist that his purpose in life "was to help confound the Queen's enemies and keep the poor bugger on the battlefield alive whilst he did so")

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_Research_Es...

The fact that these guys are still alive is pretty strong evidence for how safe non-ionizing radiation is, even at high strength.

At least when you're not sticking your head into a box that is meant to contain those waves and concentrate them in order to heat up water-laden organic matter.

in my experience they seem to be more efficient at super-heating ceramic plates than water filled organic matter which still manages to be frozen in the center

The key is to use programs for cooking rather than max power. The programs will use variable power levels to achieve more "even" cooking/reheating.

I read that the heat/cool heat/cool pattern of the 50% power level cooking for twice as long helps the heat to dissipate into the food, melt the ice crystals, and gives a better overall experience for taking 2x the time to cook the food.

I've not put that to the test myself with any scientific rigor but I have noticed better results with it personally.

Ice is far less absorptive than liquid (out I think even gaseous) water. First thaw, then cook.

Also, use borosilicate glass instead of said ceramic.

It's all a matter of degrees. People love to bathe in sunshine, but when someone builds a mirror powerful enough to boil water, it would be wise to keep your head and limbs well out of the focus.

One of the first uses of microwaves for heating was to humanly heat hamsters that had been cryogenically frozen.

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