I've been trying to think how to explain the absurdity of the 5G panic to people who don't actually know the difference between a radio wave and a virus and to whom "we don't KNOW it's safe" resonates. So, let's try.

1. It's fair to say that all modern physics started with a physicist called James Clerk Maxwell more than 150 years ago. He looked at what was known then, and realised that radio waves had to exist. Nobody had any idea before then. It was a huge triumph.

2. The entire modern technological world has flowed from that moment. Our understanding of how basic science works is hugely different now, but there is a golden thread. If we are wrong, we couldn't have done All This (waves at everything).

3. So, to prove basic science wrong, you have to undo 150 years of incredible work and the entire fabric of life today. Really, that's the scale of it. So, what does basic science say about radio and viruses? Because if you say there's a link, it must obey basic science.

4. One of the very basic science ideas is that to change anything, you have to transfer energy to it. Like snooker, if you don't hit the white ball with your cue, nothing will change on the table (unless you cheat, but there's no cheating in science).

5. Radio waves are energy. Beautifully packaged, amazingly useful energy. For them to affect anything, they have to hit that thing and pass on some of that energy. If they don't, nothing can happen. Like not hitting a ball on the snooker table.

6. One of the other basic ideas about radio waves is they have a wavelength. Think of the distance between waves hitting a beach: radio waves are the same. They have peaks and dips in energy, regularly spaced.

7. Another basic bit of radio science is that if a radio wave is to pass on energy to something, that something has to be roughly comparable to the wavelength. Think of a ship at sea. If the waves are tiny, they go past with little effect. Bigger, the ship just rides them.

8. But when the waves are spaced the same distance apart as the ship is long - then it's disasterous. Both ends of the ship can be on wave tops and the centre out of the water - huge strains. Ships sink like that.

9. But imagine a ping-pong ball in the same storm. It doesn't matter how wild the storm is, what size the waves, the ping-pong ball will just bob around. It won't be harmed or changed in a storm that could sink a battleship.

10. 5G radio waves have lots of different wavelengths, but they're of the order of a few centimetres. The corona virus? About a million times smaller. Eveyrhing we know about physics says that 5G and viruses know nothing about each other. They cannot swap energy.

11. On the other hand, every new radio technology has attracted people who claim it's harmful, from the 1920s onwards. Scientists take these worries seriously, and have done huge amounts of work - after all, science doesn't know everything.

12. We know radio waves can heat up biological systems by shaking them - think microwave ovens. There are lots of safety limits as a result. But that's it. There is no known way for anything else to be going on. We've looked very, very hard: the facts back centuries of theory.

13. We also know it's natural, especially during times of crisis, for people to be worried about forces they can't control, especially when they involve energy and viruses and other invisible things. But when you look at all the evidence, two things suggest one answer:

14. The 5G corona virus fears have no basis in science: we've looked for a hundred years. They are absolutely characteristic of the fear of the invisible.

The way to quell fears of the invisible is to make them visible. That is exactly what science does. It has proved itself.

15. So before saying 'we cannot know it's safe' ask those who say 'yes, we really can' why they're saying that. There are no secrets in science: it's all there for you. It makes the invisible, visible. It has given you your world. Give it a chance to tell you how. <ends>

(PS - yes, hugely simplified and apologies to anyone who knows about EM theory, which is infinitely more interesting and complex, and yes photons and quanta. But good luck with that on GMTV :) )

Oh, and I suppose I should #5g #coronavirus #masts #health #radio #science #eamonn #forgodssakemankind