Comment by dnautics | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dnautics | Hacker News Reader

One suspicion I've always have is that high frequency radio waves can induce microcurrents in supercoiled DNA. It's been speculated by the Barton lab¹ that the base excision repair error-correction mechanism actively surveys DNA by injecting electrical current into the DNA and 'searching' for lesions which disrupt the conductivity of DNA. Some circumstantial evidence for this is that a major "base excision repair" component has a redox-active iron-sulfur cluster, and at least one study shows that the oxidation state of this iron-sulfur cluster can change how well it attaches to DNA.

The mantra that we always hear is that if the radiation isn't ionizing it's harmless. While this mechanism for worrying about non-ionizing radiation doesn't directly cause harm, it's not quite 'harmless' either.

This mechanism would render quite a few results not surprising. Biologically, there are many stages where not having DNA error correction could be more catastrophic than usual. It makes sense that seed germination is one of these; temporarily decreased sperm count in human males would be another.

The experiment to check this hypothesis is pretty obvious, and I'll probably be doing it sometime in the next few years, especially if I can get my nonprofit research org. up and running.

Edit: Footnote [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacqueline_Barton

I find this pretty unlikely, for the same reason that nanobots have difficulty communicating: it's hard to make an antenna at those size scales that can receive a signal, much less contribute to chemical-level energy changes.

At the point where the wavelength of the EM radiation is small enough to get detected by DNA-scale antennas, it's probably already classified as ionizing radiation.

DNA molecules are pretty long. And this isn't a Nyquist law issue (I don't think) because there isn't a need to transmit coherent information. You just need to apply enough of a voltage to kick over the redox state of two iron atoms (midpoint potential ~ -20 mV) every so often.

Very, very interesting. Evolution has been trying things for billions of years, and chances are it exploits all kinds of very subtile properties of matter. It's probably found all kinds of uses for quantum effects too.

It would be a rather bad thing if this were the case, though what I'd want to know is: what's the required dose? Radiation diminishes with the square of the distance, so do you have to be right next to the emitter? Or will just having WiFi within, say, 10ft do it?

That being said, there is a solution: use lower frequencies. The frequencies used by WiFi are very high largely because all the lower frequencies are being squatted on. In particular, many devices uses the 2.4ghz band because this is the wide-open "water absorption band" that is only lightly regulated by the FCC. This band also turns out to be the band most likely to be biologically active, as it resonates with the hydrogen bonds in water.

wow, since there seems to be quite a bit of interest in this, I'll definitely be writing up a project prospectus. Check back in January of 2014, which is when my 501(c)3 status will clear. It's a reasonably easy experiment and a yes/no answer can be figured out within two years (that's an overestimate).

Why not run a kickstarter type thing and do this sooner, as a for-profit?

some things are better not rushed? I'm planning on doing kickstarter-like campaigns, for sure. The paperwork for 501(c)3 is in the hands of the IRS, so, no reason not to wait.

When you're ready you should check out Microryza: https://www.microryza.com/

They do crowdfunding for science stuff like this.

They aren't 501(c)3 and will only work with accredited research institutes.

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