Biological effects of millimeter-wave irradiation

Thesis/Dissertation · Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1986

OSTI ID:7061766

Furia, L

Millimeter waves (mm-waves) have been reported to influence various biological functions, including growth of Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, induction of lambda phage and colicin in E. coli, DNA and RNA synthesis. Many reports were characterized by a strong frequency dependence and the low power needed to induce the effect. Many of the reported effects, however, have not been confirmed by independent investigations. In this thesis the potential effects of mm-wave irradiation on biological systems have been assessed. The published literature has been reviewed in detail. Contrasting reports have been compared, and possible causes of discrepancies pointed out. In order to verify if the growth rate of yeast is dependent on the irradiation frequency, cultures of Sacch. cerevisiae have been irradiated for four hours with cw mm-waves stabilized in frequency to +/-10 Hz. The growth rate was determined optically and plate counts were performed at the end of each experiment. No variations larger than +/-4% were detected between the growth rates of irradiated and sham-irradiated cultures, and these differences were not significant at the 95% confidence limit. These results correlated favorably with the plate counts. An extensive comparison of the results with the previous, contrasting, reports is given. A model of cell membranes has been used in attempt to identify a possible site of interaction of mm-waves. Raman spectroscopy was used to determine if mm-wave irradiation affects the conformational state of phospholipids in liposomes. This investigation adds to a growing list of studies showing that mm-waves are not able to induce detectable effects in a variety of eukaryotic and prokaryotic microorganisms.

• Research Organization: Utah Univ., Salt Lake City (USA)
• OSTI ID: 7061766
• Resource Relation: Other Information: Thesis (Ph. D.)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTANT EFFECTS ON LIVING ORGS. AND BIOL. MAT.
ESCHERICHIA COLI
GROWTH
MICROWAVE RADIATION
BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS
SACCHAROMYCES CEREVISIAE
CELL MEMBRANES
POPULATION DYNAMICS
RAMAN SPECTROSCOPY
BACTERIA
CELL CONSTITUENTS
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
FUNGI
LASER SPECTROSCOPY
MEMBRANES
MICROORGANISMS
PLANTS
RADIATIONS
SACCHAROMYCES
SPECTROSCOPY
YEASTS
560400* - Other Environmental Pollutant Effects