New iPhone app - cooking with your mobile phone

Let's get some things straight first:

• One, you may be wondering what does an iPhone app have to do with epidemiology? Nothing really ;)
• Two, there is no such app, I just wanted to increase the number of Apple-fans in my reading community :P
• Three, can you actually cook with your phone?

A few years ago, a now-famous hoax appeared online, claiming that you can cook an egg by placing it between two active mobile phones (or cell phones, as known in some countries). That myth was eventually proven as false, but many people "bought it" initially. Actually, the way this information spread (like any internet phenomenon - "like a virus") would probably interest many epidemiologists, hehe.

But there is another thing I noticed - we are still not sure whether mobile phone exposure is dangerous to our health or not. Not long ago, my friends and I actually tried making pop-corn using 5 phones, but failed. In fact, we used 3 or 4 iPhones, so a theory would be that an iPhone is just too weak to make a corn pop :) I concluded that there is no need for anyone to make an app that would even attempt cooking food :P

Anyway, to come to the real point of this post: some serious people (a.k.a. scientists), lead by Dr. Volkow, actually tried measuring the effect of mobile phones on our brain. You can read about it in this NY Times article.

In short, they found out that mobile phone use does cause changes in brain activity. No cause to panic - they do not know what these changes mean really, but it is important to understand that mobile phone use does something to our brain, not "nothing" as believed until know by some. The big difference is that previous studies were usually observational, but this one was randomized.

I also like that they do not jump to any conclusions - they suggest that this research only shows potential areas of further research. In fact, they also predicted possible therapeutic uses of mobile phones!

But I keep wondering what all these wireless devices in our environment mean for our health... If we are indeed just pulsating strings, couldn't your home wi-fi (or any wireless technology) change something? You know, maybe through some sort of resonance... Or your mobile phone that you keep a few inches from every part of your brain while talking? Maybe we don't even have the technology that can measure what we are doing to ourselves...

Yeah, well, I love the convenience of modern technology, so I'm gonna keep using it :) I always say that if we want to live in fear of technology and what it can do to us, we might as well go back to living in caves... Not that I propose mindless use of anything - we have to stay alert; but it is more likely that the stress of living in fear will kill you sooner than that what you fear ;)

And if I'm wrong? Well, evolution will take care of that :)