The results of a scientific experiment of ninth-graders from Denmark have attracted the attention of scientists around the world, because they can make people rethink their attitude to wireless devices, which are increasingly found in an ordinary apartment.
Five high school girls decided to conduct an experiment after they noticed an annoying pattern - if during sleep a mobile phone lies at the head of the bed, in the morning you wake up absent-minded and cannot focus on important things all day.
The ninth graders decided to expand the scope of the test and tested the effects of Wi-Fi routers on plants. “We thought, if a wireless device is so influencing our brain activity, how will it affect plants,” - said one of the authors of the study.
The schoolgirls placed six trays of soil, which were previously planted with watercress seeds, right next to a Wi-Fi router, which, they said, produces the same type of radiation as a regular mobile phone. And six more exactly the same trays the researchers put in the yard. After 12 days, the seeds in them rose, unlike those who spent all this time near the wireless device. Moreover, many of the seeds that spent almost two weeks near the Wi-Fi router simply died.
“This has sparked quite a lively debate in Denmark about the potential health hazards of exposure to mobile phones and Wi-Fi equipment,” said Kim Horsevad, a biology teacher at the girls' school, in an interview.
At the same time, she added that there was also discussion in scientific circles that the damage to the seeds could be caused by the heat emitted by the router, and not at all by the magnetic waves. However, the teacher explained that the students kept the watercress seeds in both cases in moist soil throughout the experiment, and the temperature was controlled using a thermostat.
A similar study was conducted about three years ago in the Netherlands, when researchers noticed that some trees in urban areas began to hurt. The experiment involved 20 ash trees. For three months, they were exposed to various types of radiation, after exposure to Wi-Fi signals, the trees began to show typical signs of radiation sickness, including a "lead shine" on their leaves.
The project of Danish schoolgirls got to a science fair and professor of neurology Olle Johanssen from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden has already shown great interest in it. “It is likely that Johanssen will repeat the girls' experiment in conditions controlled by the professional scientific environment,” said Kim Horsewad. “Therefore, it is worth waiting for the results to find out what scientists have to say about this,” she added.
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