PropertyValue
?:author
?:datePublished
  • 2017-04-08 (xsd:date)
?:headline
  • Do WiFi Signals Stunt Plant Growth? (de)
?:inLanguage
?:itemReviewed
?:mentions
?:reviewBody
  • On 4 April 2017, the web site Safe Living published an article reporting that high schoolers put together a science experiment involving cress and wifi that purportedly showed wireless connectivity is harmful to seedlings: Most versions of the story did not provide any further detail. After its initial appearance in 2013, the claim regularly pops up as new news, spiking again in December 2013 in an article describing the school project as a study (rather than an experiment) and raising health concerns. However, a 2013 meta-study suggested that, while research showed mixed results, there was little to cause immediate concern and proposed more research on the topic: A May 2013 analysis written by skeptic and mathematician Pepijn van Erp as the claim made its way around the Internet unpacked concerns about the project: The Guardian posited that heat generated by routers could be a possible plant growth inhibitor, and observed that the students didn't rule out other causes for sleep disruption near mobile phones (such as light or general distracting properties). It is true that in May 2013 a small school science project was done by five Danish schoolgirls, its findings cyclically reported and shared on social media for years thereafter. Although anti-technology sites continue to present the claim as novel and credible, seasoned researchers almost immediately identified significant flaws in the methodology. A study published in March 2016 has been widely billed as a replication of the Danish high school project. That study, which is published in an obscure journal (Current Chemical Biology) and written by a professor actively involved in pushing claims about the dangers of EMF, as well as a consultant who works for a company that offers to measure your home, office and/or school for Dirty Electricity, Radio Frequency Radiation, Electric and Magnetic fields and provide simple solutions to reduce your exposure to ‘electrosmog’, is literally the opposite of a replication of the Danish study, as they did not actually replicate their results: While this study did test the effects of Wi-Fi on other plants (broccoli, red clover, and peas) and purported to find negative effects on them, science is still waiting for a successful replication to the Danish cress study (as well as a replication of new results presented in this paper). (en)
?:reviewRating
rdf:type
?:url