Cell Phones, Body Scanners, and Cancer

Vortrag

Prof. Dr. Eric Swanson, U. of Pittsburgh

Tuesday, Feb. 11, 5pm, HS 05.01 (Institute of Physics)

In May 2011, the World Health Organization announced that

cell phones cause cancer. In this talk, I examine whether

this announcement was sensible. Along the way we will

review the history of medical research on the effects of

electromagnetic radiation on humans, what it means to do

good science, public hysteria, and the dangers of airport body scanners.

Eric Swanson is a professor of theoretical physics at the

University of Pittsburgh. He obtained his degree from the

University of Toronto and moved on to Oxford, MIT, and

North Carolina before going to Pittsburgh. His research is

primarily concerned with the nature of quarks and gluons,

but he has also published on quantum spin systems and the

interactions of the electromagnetic field with the human

body. He is the author of more than 100 research papers, a

fellow of the American Physical Society, a member of the

Union of Concerned Scientists, and a frequent op-ed

contributor to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.