EMF
Latest
Rock Band Weekly: Cheap Trick, EMF
Next week's Rock Band DLC songs want you to want them. No, they need you to need them! They'd love you to love them. Beg you to beg them. It's a cheap trick.
Visualized: a strange world where echo doesn't exist
Anechoic chambers are special rooms designed to absorb sound or electromagnetic radiation; they're nothing new, and most audio and electronics companies consider them critical parts of their testing facilities. Considering how odd they look, though, we never get tired of a good picture of one -- and Apple's press conference today pimping its in-house inventory of 17 such chambers gave us an opportunity to look at some of the craziest we've ever seen. See more at Apple's web page devoted to its antenna design and test labs.
MIT's EMF detector bracelet takes all the fun out of radiation poisoning
We've seen our fair share of EMF detectors and other tin foil hat apparel, but no endeavor is complete without the MIT stamp of approval. Cati Vaucelle's EMF sensor bracelet is designed to pick up on any potentially harmful electromagnetic fields, allowing you to dance around the veritable minefield of computers and cell phones in your workplace, unscathed by the -- maybe, maybe not -- lethal effects of radiation being emitted. Nevermind about looking like a freak -- better safe than sorry, right? The bracelet, sensitive up to 14-inches, features an integrated LED that's illuminated whenever an EMF field over 50kHz is detected. If you'd like to see this prototype in action, a video will be presented today at Ubicomp in Seoul, or save your air miles and see it here after the break.[Via Make]
Another Brit allergic to cellphones, electromagnetic fields
Sure, we've heard of cellphones causing all sorts of medical troubles when not conjuring cancer in your ear, but the latest report of everyday consumer electronics wreaking havoc on humans comes from where else but the UK. Curiously, this isn't the first time England has been the site of allergic reactions to electromagnetic fields (EMF), and Manchester's Debbie Bird has been forced to make outlandish alterations to her home (and way of life) in order to avoid intense headaches, painful skin rashes, and bizarre eyelid swelling. Among the items she can't use are microwaves, BMWs (saywha?), and cellphones, and she has also coated her walls in pricey black carbon paint, covered her windows in "protective film," and weirdest of all, sleeps under a "silver-plated mosquito net" in order to curb her reactions. Now, what type of hidden superpowers are in her arsenal to counter such strange deficiencies?
Cellphones are dangerous/not dangerous, Italian edition
We may not know whether your phone is going to kill you, but we can tell you that it excites your brain. This, uh, exciting news comes to us from a team at Fatebenefratelli Hospital in Milan, which used transcranial magnetic stimulation to monitor brain activity during subjects' phone calls. More often than not, brain cells adjacent to the phone went into an "excited" state during the call, but returned to normal within 45 minutes. What this means for your long-term health we're not exactly sure -- and neither is the Italian group. They do note that it might be of special relevance to folks with epilepsy, since excited brain cells have been linked to the disease. "It should be argued that long-lasting and repeated exposure to EMFs (electromagnetic frequencies) linked with intense use of cellular phones in daily life might be harmful or beneficial in brain-diseased subjects," says their report. "Harmful or beneficial" -- thanks, guys; that really clears things up for us.[Via I4U News]
