

9th Grade Science Project Finds Plants Don’t Grow Near Wi-Fi - dannypovolotski
http://povolotski.me/2013/10/07/9th-grade-science-project-finds-plants-dont-grow-wi-fi/
Five ninth-grade young women from Denmark recently created a science experiment that is causing a stir in the scientific community. They found that when garden cress seeds are placed near Wi-Fi, they simply will not grow.
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dekhn
(note this old news dating back to May 25 2013 or earlier. Not sure why it was
reposted as a copy on 'dannypovolotski', when it was originally written else
where [months ago]).

Does anybody have a link to the student's poster? I'd like to see what
controls they did. Everything about the original news article
"[http://www.trueactivist.com/9th-grade-science-project-
finds-...](http://www.trueactivist.com/9th-grade-science-project-finds-plants-
dont-grow-near-wi-fi/") is filled with pseudoscience, or claims which cannot
be evaluated.

A short list of grievances against the article: Claim: "Many health experts
consider Wi-Fi radiation to be extremely dangerous to long-term health.".
Citation? Most health experts say there is insufficient evidence of this,
given the lack of actual data supporting this claim (and it's not for want of
trying; many poor quality articles have since been debunked). it's quite hard
to make a strong, actionable statement about wi-fi health. I encourage people
who think there is a problem to come up with good experiments, because until
you show some unequivocable evidence, skeptics are going to (rightly) doubt
you.

"Based on the existing science, many public health experts believe it is
possible we will face an epidemic of cancers in the future resulting from
uncontrolled use of cell phones and increased population exposure to WiFi and
other wireless devices". Really. An epidemic of cancers? Cancer incidence is
increasing in the modern world, but that's because we've cured the things that
used to kill people at younger ages. Note that over 1 billion people already
use cell phones world wide. Can you point to increases in cancer can be solely
attributed to the use of wifi or other EMF?

"It started with an observation and a question. The girls noticed that if they
slept with their mobile phones near their heads at night, they often had
difficulty concentrating at school the next day." Really? you are seriously
claiming you can tell if you slept with your phone near your head? OK, no
problem, cell phones get hot, maybe there is a thermal effect? But, what is
the distance of phone to head? More than an inch? No effect. Seriously, this
is a very weak observation. Many things can make you feel tired at school-
simply staying up late and not getting enough hours is sufficient to explain
this,.

"Over the next 12 days, the girls observed, measured, weighed and photographed
their results. Although by the end of the experiment the results were
blatantly obvious — the cress seeds placed near the router had not grown. Many
of them were completely dead. While the cress seeds planted in the other room,
away from the routers, thrived." Was an adequate control used? Both positive
and negative controls? Are you sure? Did you swap the locations of the router
and test again? Look for hidden biases.

I could go on. That was just the article. I'd need to see the kid's poster to
know more.

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ChuckMcM
So its a reasonable experiment and one easily reproduced in more controlled
conditions (to avoid things like water evaporation etc) but this stuff really
annoys me:

 _" Wi-Fi radiation penetrates the body, affects cell membranes and over time
cells to lose their ability to function properly. It disturbs the body’s
natural energy field causing stress, fatigue and a weakened immune system. It
can also cause headaches, concentration problems, dizziness, anxiety, memory
loss, depression, hyperactivity, abnormal heart rates, seizures, epilepsy,
nausea, skin rashes, insomnia, ringing ears, high blood pressure, brain
damage, autism, diabetes, fibromyalgia, infertility, birth defects, DNA
damage, leukemia, cancer, etc."_

It of course doesn't do any of that, which has been shown to be true in study
after study.

Their source is "SafeSpace" which was founded by Joyce Culkin -- "As an
inventor who combined expertise in energy healing with a background as an
industrial designer adept at blending form, usability, engineering and more to
solve problems," == [http://www.safespaceprotection.com/about-safe-
space.aspx](http://www.safespaceprotection.com/about-safe-space.aspx)

~~~
dekhn
Technically, all that's been done so far is demonstrate that wifi is unlikely
to cause these effects. "shown to be true" never happens in science. We merely
run out of complaints that we can level at the experimenter.

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yamalight
>> "It disturbs the body’s natural energy field"

Wait, what? Body's energy field? Seriously?

