Park is not a biochemist. He therefore can not see how DNA can be
damaged without photons of ionizing energy. What Park is overlooking
is that ionization, the photoelectric effect, is not necessary to
damage DNA or other molecules important to life functions. Chemical
reactions can be triggered by very small potential differences, and
such chemical reactions can result in changes to important molecules,
including DNA. Such changes can be effected by ordinary
electrochemical means, when electrochemical potentials are in close
balance, or via potential triggered ion exchange through membranes,
such as across cellular membrane barriers. Nerve dendrites are
conductive paths with lengths sufficient to act as antennas for short
wavelength EM waves. They can thus resonantly build potentials when
EM radiation stimulated, and their membranes can act as barriers
through which ions can tunnel to chemically affect molecules on the
other side.
The biochemistry involved in potential EM damage is a complex field
with large scope. For example see the paper by Peter Kovacic1 and
Ratnasamy Somanathan:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/34247981/EMF-Mechanism-Cell-Signaling-Bio-
Processes-Toxicity-Radicals
http://tinyurl.com/4ao3rlf
It is merely necessary to create radicals that can damage DNA, and
this can be done at low voltages. Consider this:
Quote:
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PHYSICS NEWS UPDATE
The American Institute of Physics Bulletin of Physics News
Number 636 #1, May 7, 2003 by Phil Schewe, James Riordon, and Ben Stein
Ultra-Low-Energy Electrons Can Break Up Uracil
Ultra-low-energy electrons can break up uracil, a new study shows.
How injurious is radiation (alpha, beta, and gamma rays or heavy
ions) to living cells? This important question has been addressed in
many ways. Much attention has centered on the secondary particles
produced in the wake of the intruding primary radiation, especially
electrons (about 40,000 electrons are produced for each MeV of energy
deposited) with typical energies of tens of electron volts. Many of
these secondary particles quickly lose their energy and become
attached (solvated) to water molecules in the cell. What is the
general effect of electron energies below 20 eV? A report from three
years ago (Boudaiffa et al., Science 287, 1658, 2000) showed that
electrons in the 3-20 eV range are able to produce substantial
genotoxic damage, including breaking single- and double-stranded DNA?
What about secondary electrons with even smaller energies?
To look at this energy range for the first time, Tilmann Maerk and
his colleagues at the Universitat Innsbruck (Austria) and the
University Claude Bernard Lyon (France) scattered a beam of sub-eV
electrons from a beam of gaseous uracil molecules. Uracil is one of
the base units of RNA molecules, and is thus a crucial component in
cells. These scientists found that uracil is efficiently fragmented
by electrons with energies as small as milli-electron-volts. It's not
the electron's kinetic energy that causes the disruption, but the
electron's charge, which changes the uracil's internal potential
energy environment. Furthermore, in the process a very mobile atomic
hydrogen can be freed, which on its own, as a radical (a free
chemical unit by itself), can do damage to biomolecules (see a movie
of this process at http://info.uibk.ac.at/ionenphysik/ClusterGroup/
Uracil.html; schematic at /png/2003/187.htm). Maerk (43-512-507-6240)
says that this low-energy damage seems to be a general result since
his group has since performed similar work with thymine (a DNA base)
and have seen similar fragmentation. (Hanel et al., Physical Review
Letters, 9 May 2003; Innsbruck website)
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End quote.
Here is a more physics based point which Park should be able to
mentally process:
Quote:
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PHYSICS NEWS UPDATE
The American Institute of Physics Bulletin of Physics News
Number 705 October 20, 2004 by Phillip F. Schewe, Ben Stein
ATOMS CAN TRANSFER THEIR INTERNAL "STRESS" TO OTHER ATOMS, new
experiments have revealed. Compared to atoms that are all by
themselves, atoms with a close neighbor have a very efficient and
surprising way to get rid of excess internal energy. An excited atom
can hand over its energy to a neighbor, a research team led by the
University of Frankfurt has demonstrated experimentally in a
measurement carried out at the Berlin synchrotron facility BESSY II
(R. Doerner, [email protected]). Predicted in 1997 by a
group at Heidelberg University (Cederbaum et al., Phys Rev. Lett, 15
Dec 1997), this decay mechanism occurs when atoms or molecules lump
together. Once an excited particle is placed in an environment of
other particles such as in clusters or fluids, the novel deexcitation
mechanism, called "Interatomic Coulombic Decay," leads to the
emission of very low-energy electrons from a particle that is
neighboring the initially excited one (see figure at www.aip.org/
png). The researchers demonstrated the effect in a pair of weakly
bound neon atoms. The two neon atoms were separated by 3.4 Angstroms
(about 6 times the radius of the neon atom) and held together by a
weak "van der Waals" bond. Removing a tightly bound electron from one
of the neon atoms allowed one of the less tightly bound atoms to jump
down to the tightly bound spot and in the process gained energy. The
extra energy was not sufficient to liberate any of the remaining
electrons in the same neon atom, but it was sufficient to release an
electron in the neighboring atom.
This newly verified effect may have a wide-ranging impact in
chemistry and biology since it is predicted to happen frequently in
most hydrogen-bonded systems, most prominently liquid water.
Furthermore, it may be an important, and so far unknown, source of
low-energy electrons, which have recently been shown to cause damage
to DNA (see http://www.aip.org/pnu/2003/split/636-1.html). (Jahnke et
al., Physical Review Letters, 15 October 2004; also see researchers'
website at http://hsb.unifrankfurt. de/photoncluster/ICD.html)
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End quote.
Best regards,
Horace Heffner
http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/
