Terahertz radiation can disrupt proteins in living cells | Hacker News Reader

Terahertz radiation can disrupt proteins in living cells

phys.org

27 pointsconsumer45110 comments

There is so much FUD, conspiracy, and disinformation surrounding the topic of the hazards of EM radiation to human tissue that it's hard to separate what's relevant from the hyperbolic. Is there a good primer on which frequencies are actually harmful to humans? I seem to remember from studying for my amateur radio license (back in 1990) that the potential harm to a human was based one height and the frequency in question, that the body would act like an antenna and resonate with certain frequencies but in the 5G and Terahertz discussions we're talking about something rather different.

Human height ~ frequency. Power level and time are the other parameters.

A 6ft tall person’s resonant frequency is 150MHz. 300,000,000 m/s (light) / height(wavelength) = frequency

From what I remember, the higher microwave frequencies have less affect unless they are directed at you or confined like a microwave oven. Then it’s a matter of the resonant frequencies of water.

There is more to it but that’s just an intro.

“The most dangerous frequencies of electromagnetic energy are X-rays, gamma rays, ultraviolet light and microwaves. X-rays, gamma rays and UV light can damage living tissues, and microwaves can cook them.” -https://sciencing.com/wavelengths-frequencies-dangerous-7487...

Humans are not conductive enough for standing waves to form at that scale, so this analysis does not make sense. The human body, as a macro object, does not resonate with EM waves in any way.

Proteins in the body are a different story, obviously.

> There is so much FUD, conspiracy, and disinformation surrounding the topic of the hazards of EM radiation to human tissue that it's hard to separate what's relevant from the hyperbolic.

I posted this and I agree. To be entirely honest I was hoping to gain some insights from comments here on HN.

u/Junk_Collector has an interesting question that I was wondering about as well.

Deeper link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-65955-5

It's interesting to me because this same team published https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-28245-9

which claims to show that THz radiation promotes actin filaments, but their new publication claims are that the THz radiation induces mechanical vibrations which remove or destroy actin filaments. It will be interesting to see where this all goes.

They could be doing both. Similar to how oxidants stimulate cellular regeneration. If the THz waves induce mechanical destruction, especially on already weakened or damaged actin filaments, it could induce cellular repair mechanisms to create new action. It might be something useful in certain cases. Say, deep cellular regeneration... or not.

What's the goal in posting this/having this phrasing?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terahertz_gap https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_spectrum

Please point to the spot on the EM-specrtum that you're scared of, and tell me what color it is.

HN needs something like r/science's level of rigorous moderation when it comes to comments on scientific articles that are not math/CS/classical mechanics related.

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