Quote:
Originally posted by orphen
Thanks sapper.. i was thinking along the same line (the atenna) but thanks for explaining in detail. Now the question is if it 's bad for you.. lol pointing that right into your chin might kill some brain cells?
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Funny you should ask
All phrases which are bold are key scientific terms - worth further research to any interested.
All chemical compounds have what is called a
bond dissociation energy which basically means, given 'x' amount of energy, the chemical bond will be broken.
In
DNA, a relatively weak (but very important) bond known as a
hydrogen bond is used to hold the
double helix together.
Phosphodiester bonds (stronger than hydrogen bonds) hold the A,T,G,C
nucleotides together along the length of DNA. If any of these bonds are broken,
DNA replication errors _may_ occur - which if left un-checked =
mutations. In the worst case, phosphodiester bonds are broken and a very damaging mutation known as a
frameshift mutation occurs. Thankfully, DNA is very good at 'proof-reading' these
DNA transcripts. To give you an idea .. for every 10e9 (read 10 to the power of 9) correct
base pair (A-T and G-C) combinations, only 1 or fewer (zero) will typically be wrong. Furthermore, because of the huge portions of
non-coding DNA (
introns), it is very unlikely that an
exon (protein coding portion of DNA) will be affected.
Going back to the question, a typical hydrogen bond has a dissociation energy of approximately 436 kJ/mol (4.36e5 J/mol) which means roughly 7.24e-19J per bond.
According to
Plank's equation, the energy of one
photon can be calculated as: E = hv (read: energy = h times 'nu') where h = Plank's constant (6.63e-34Js) and 'nu' = frequency (s^-1)
E = (6.63e-34Js)(45MHz)
E = (6.63e-34Js)(4.5e7s^-1) {seconds cancel leaving only
Joules}
E = 3.0e-26J per photon
As seen above, the energy required to break one H-H bond is 7.24e-19J whereas the radio wave can only supply 3.0e-26J per photon .. this is a difference of 7 orders of magnitude (lots!).
Long answer, I know .. but here it is:
The radio wave should not be able to break a typical H-H bond in DNA.
As you can see, there is a vast array of scientific mumbo-jumbo behind this answer .. and it could get even more complicated if you really dig deep. For any who made it this far before turning off their computer, skipping to the next thread, or so on .. I highly recommend you have a quick peek at all the terms I "bolded".
Cheers!
