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Terahertz/Submillimeter Activity Radiation (TSA-Rays) will "melt" your DNA, physicists find.
MIT Technology Review ^

Posted on 11/16/2010 9:53:42 AM PST by sturmde

How Terahertz Waves Tear Apart DNA

A new model of the way the THz waves interact with DNA explains how the damage is done and why evidence has been so hard to gather.

Great things are expected of terahertz waves, the radiation that fills the slot in the electromagnetic spectrum between microwaves and the infrared. Terahertz waves pass through non-conducting materials such as clothes , paper, wood and brick and so cameras sensitive to them can peer inside envelopes, into living rooms and "frisk" people at distance.

The way terahertz waves are absorbed and emitted can also be used to determine the chemical composition of a material. And even though they don't travel far inside the body, there is great hope that the waves can be used to spot tumors near the surface of the skin. ... But what of the health effects of terahertz waves? At first glance, it's easy to dismiss any notion that they can be damaging. Terahertz photons are not energetic enough to break chemical bonds or ionise atoms or molecules, the chief reasons why higher energy photons such as x-rays and UV rays are so bad for us. But could there be another mechanism at work?

The evidence that terahertz radiation damages biological systems is mixed. "Some studies reported significant genetic damage while others, although similar, showed none," says Boian Alexandrov at at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. ... Alexandrov and co have created a model to investigate how THz fields interact with double-stranded DNA and what they've found is remarkable. They say that although the forces generated are tiny, resonant effects allow THz waves to unzip double-stranded DNA, creating bubbles in the double strand that could significantly interfere with processes such as gene expression and DNA replication. That's a jaw dropping conclusion.

(Excerpt) Read more at technologyreview.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: melt; rays; scanner; terahertzwaves; tsa; tsapervs
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As a physicist myself, I can suggest that it is highly likely that even as a small effect, you may find in five to ten years that the frequent fliers, those who go through these scanners 100 times or more a year... will begin to quite literally fall apart.
1 posted on 11/16/2010 9:53:44 AM PST by sturmde
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To: sturmde

If by “fall apart” you mean “get cancer” then yes, if these things cause errors in DNA replication (i.e. mutation) then the upshot will be higher incidence of cancer.


2 posted on 11/16/2010 9:55:54 AM PST by allmendream (Tea Party did not send the GOP to D.C. to negotiate the terms of our surrender to socialism.)
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To: sturmde

Uh, oh. Let’s pass this one on to Drudge.

I am telling my family NOT to go through these scanners. A patdown might be extremely upsetting, but better than risking your basic health.


3 posted on 11/16/2010 9:58:39 AM PST by Cicero
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To: sturmde
I would also be afraid of something else falling apart if it gets groped long enough, hard enough and often enough by TSA perverts.
4 posted on 11/16/2010 9:59:32 AM PST by Zakeet (Like the wise Wee Wee said, "We can't be broke ... we still have checks in the checkbook.")
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To: sturmde

Perhaps further study could allow tuning the wave frequencies to avoid the “DNA unzip” effect. However there’s probably going to be a lot of premature skin aging and worse before the dangers are clearly understood.


5 posted on 11/16/2010 10:01:16 AM PST by HiTech RedNeck (I am in America but not of America (per bible: am in the world but not of it))
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To: Zakeet

6 posted on 11/16/2010 10:01:34 AM PST by WOBBLY BOB ( "I don't want the majority if we don't stand for something"- Jim Demint)
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To: Cicero
A patdown might be extremely upsetting,

If those bastards want to violate my privacy, they're going to have to do it the old fashioned way, in public. No sitting in a sealed room whacking off over the pictures of my fat ugly arse ...

7 posted on 11/16/2010 10:02:15 AM PST by ArrogantBustard (Western Civilization is Aborting, Buggering, and Contracepting itself out of existence.)
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To: allmendream
If by “fall apart” you mean “get cancer” then yes, if these things cause errors in DNA replication (i.e. mutation) then the upshot will be higher incidence of cancer.

And birth defects if the radiation affects sperm and/or ova.

Young women/girls should NOT get scanned until more tests are done, same deal with boys who might want to father children later in life. These scanners need to be shut down until these effects are THOROUGHLY studied.

8 posted on 11/16/2010 10:07:17 AM PST by PapaBear3625 ("It is only when we've lost everything, that we are free to do anything" -- Fight Club)
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To: ArrogantBustard
Ahhhhhhh. Someone finally said it.

Let's put a guy in a locked room and make him look at naked pictures all day long.

What could possibly happen?

9 posted on 11/16/2010 10:08:18 AM PST by null and void (We are now in day 665 of our national holiday from reality. - 0bama really isn't one of US.)
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To: PapaBear3625

Hey, maybe it’s an alternative to putting abortifacients and sterilants into the drinking water. Have Van Jones or John Holdren been hanging around with Janet Napolitano lately?

When you’ve got people in positions of power who have said that they’re perfectly fine with the government instituting stealth measures to sterilize and euthanize the unknowing public in order to “save Mother Earth”, nothing is beyond the realm of possibility.

People really, really need to see what they did when they elected a demoralized communist Islamist and his buddies to be in charge of everything they can grab hold of - which is everything, right down to the private parts of individuals they don’t even know.


10 posted on 11/16/2010 10:11:50 AM PST by butterdezillion (.)
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To: null and void
Its a job tailor-made for rapists, homosexuals, pedophiles, and other perverts ...

TSA Agent = Sex Offender.

11 posted on 11/16/2010 10:12:44 AM PST by ArrogantBustard (Western Civilization is Aborting, Buggering, and Contracepting itself out of existence.)
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To: Cicero

What does someone like me do who wears not one but two medical devices? If they pat me down they can disloge my inset for my insulin pump and cause me to be in a very dangerous range of blood gluclose within about a 1/2 an hour.Sitting on a plane isn’t a good place to try to insert another one and the bathrooms are not clean enough.The pump can not be exposed to the scans nor xray.The insets for my transmitters for my 24 hour gluclose monitor cost about $87.50 each so if they dislodge that it’s expensive to replace and again that nor the reciever can go through either the scanner or xray.I don’t think either can be exposed to the hand thing though not sure about that.I know xray,CTscan, and MRI all are no no’s.


12 posted on 11/16/2010 10:13:19 AM PST by chris_bdba
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To: chris_bdba

You need a special dispensation from Team Obama.

Otherwise, no flying for you.


13 posted on 11/16/2010 10:20:05 AM PST by AlmaKing
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To: chris_bdba

I know it’s not something everyone can do, but personally, I plan on just saying no to flying. I do ok on a train, or we can drive to most places we go. Flying was the perfect answer at one time, but not these days.


14 posted on 11/16/2010 10:22:15 AM PST by MizSterious ("Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." -JFK)
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To: ArrogantBustard
Photobucket
15 posted on 11/16/2010 10:22:34 AM PST by null and void (We are now in day 665 of our national holiday from reality. - 0bama really isn't one of US.)
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To: null and void

ROFL!!!!


16 posted on 11/16/2010 10:26:29 AM PST by ArrogantBustard (Western Civilization is Aborting, Buggering, and Contracepting itself out of existence.)
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To: sturmde

That Social Security thing? Uhhhhhhhh, we think it’s going to be solvent. Looks like future payouts are going to decrease dramatically. And Medicare? Don’t worry about it.


17 posted on 11/16/2010 10:29:26 AM PST by ClearCase_guy
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To: sturmde

As the report mentions, actual tests have produced inconclusive results. So, they developed a model to simulate what might happen. I have no idea how valid their model might be, but it strikes me as a pretty bold statement to reach a conclusion based on nothing more than a model.


18 posted on 11/16/2010 10:32:35 AM PST by centurion316
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To: null and void

TSA is recruiting criminals who are former catholic priests....


19 posted on 11/16/2010 10:39:23 AM PST by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: null and void

Now that is a seriously intelligent & truthful description of the TSA as it is presently working.


20 posted on 11/16/2010 10:39:23 AM PST by Nebr FAL owner (.308 reach out & thump someone .50 cal.Browning Machine gun reach out & crush someone)
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