Biophys J, March 2002, p. 1147-1152, Vol. 82, No. 3

Vibrational Resonances in Biological Systems at Microwave Frequencies

Department of Physics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520-8121 USA

Many biological systems can be expected to exhibit resonance behavior involving the mechanical vibration of system elements. The natural frequencies of such resonances will, generally, be in the microwave frequency range. Some of these systems will be coupled to the electromagnetic field by the charge distributions they carry, thus admitting the possibility that microwave exposures may generate physiological effects in man and other species. However, such microwave excitable resonances are expected to be strongly damped by interaction with their aqueous biological environment. Although those dissipation mechanisms have been studied, the limitations on energy transfers that follow from the limited coupling of these resonances to the electromagnetic field have not generally been considered. We show that this coupling must generally be very small and thus the absorbed energy is so strongly limited that such resonances cannot affect biology significantly even if the systems are much less strongly damped than expected from basic dissipation models.

Biophys J, March 2002, p. 1147-1152, Vol. 82, No. 3
© 2002 by the Biophysical Society   0006-3495/02/03/1147/06  $2.00

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