Comments on "Electric current and electric field induced in a human body when exposed to an incident electric field near the resonant frequency" [with reply]
For original paper see ibid., vol. 48, no. 9, p. 147-53 (2000). The author makes two observations on the original article. The commentator questions whether a seated person is well modeled as a right circular cylinder. The second observation is that King cites only microwave studies on mice to show that electromagnetic radiation causes malignancies. These studies themselves are widely disputed. He then uses simple dimensional scaling to show that 2.45 GHz for a mouse scales to 100 MHz for a man. Such a scaling law may be useful in calculating the resonant frequency for a human subject versus a mouse when treated as antennas, but such scaling is meaningless when the physics of a hypothetical carcinogenic process are unknown.
Electric current and electric field induced in the human body when exposed to an incident electric field near the resonant frequency
The electric field and current density induced in the human body when this is exposed to electric fields near the resonant frequency, 53 MHz, are determined analytically. Since this frequency range includes an important amateur radio band of 50-60 MHz and exposure to electric fields at this frequency has been shown to be hazardous, the study has a specific motivation. A cylindrical model of the body is used to derive formulas for the total axial current and current density induced in the body subject to skin effect. Tabulations and graphical representations illuminate the results.
The Unusual Variability of the Large Magellanic Cloud Planetary Nebula RPJ 053059–683542
We present images and light curves of the bipolar planetary nebula RPJ 053059-683542 that was discovered in the Reid-Parker AAO UKST Hα survey of the Large Magellanic Cloud. The emission from this object appears entirely nebular, with the central star apparently obscured by a central band of absorption that bisects the nebula. The light curves, which were derived from images from the SuperMACHO project at CTIO, showed significant, spatially resolved variability over the period 2002 January through 2005 December. Remarkably, the emission from the two bright lobes of the nebula vary either independently or similarly but with a phase lag of at least 1 yr. The optical spectra show a low level of nebular excitation, and only modest N enrichment. Infrared photometry from the 2MASS and SAGE surveys indicates the presence of a significant quantity of dust. The available data imply that the central star has a close binary companion and that the system has undergone some kind of outburst event that caused the nebular emission to first brighten and then fade. Further monitoring, high-resolution imaging, and detailed IR polarimetry and spectroscopy would uncover the nature of this nebula and the unseen ionizing source.