Subject:  (French) Re Bond breaking (fwd)
Date:     Wed, 15 Jul 1998 213022 -0500 (CDT)
From:     "Roy L. Beavers" <rbeavers@llion.org>
To:       emfguru@hotmail.com
--------------------------------------------------

.......One brief comment offered below (in the text of Peter's
excellent response to Ed Maxey).....guru......

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 11:30:46 +1000
From: Peter French 
To: "Roy L. Beavers" 
Subject: Re: Bond breaking (fwd)

Roy,
Bill Curry's comments below are correct. 

I really believe that you are pushing uphill to try to argue that
nonionising radiation can break chemical bonds. If it could do that, by
definition it wouldn't be non-ionising. What is far more likely and has
strong scientific evidence behind it is the proposition that non-ionising
EMFs can interfere with cellular signal transduction pathways which
ultimately lead to really important consequences such as control of cell
growth, regulation of gene expression and cell metabolism. This can have
just as significant consequences for human health as chemical bond
breakage, but is likely to be much more subtle and more variable 

[....I believe this -- extremely important observation by Peter -- just
about sums up the "conundrum" in which the EMF RAPID working group found
itself (at Minneapolis) when it tried to reach any conclusions about the
in-vitro research.  They do not say that the research is not valid.  It is
more a case of having to say:  "We don't know what it means."
......EXCEPT that it does appear to confirm EMF stimulation of biological 
activity!!!!......guru......Again, that is my interpretation -- Louis
Slesin might say it differently???......]

- hence
more may not necessarily be worse (this could explain "windows").

To finally comment on Ed's comments - the ordered progression of chromosome
replication and division seen in mitosis is not an example of chemical bond
"breakage". It is as Bill explains a process facilitated by an enzyme. If
you have a chemical carcinogen in the region at the time of mitosis, this
will result in an aberrant reformation of the double stranded DNA which can
result in inappropriate expression of a gene.

To reiterate - I do not think you will win any argument that RF EMFs are
capable of breaking chemical bonds - I think the Roti Roti experiments
demonstrate a plausible artifactual mechanism for Lai and Singh's results.

Peter French

>Roy,
>        With all due respect for Ed Maxey's abilities as both a physician and a
>communicator, I think he has slightly misstated the case for saying that bond
>breaking goes on all the time without satisfying the "physicist's criterion." 
>While I am not a specialist in this area, I have read papers that describe the
>DNA "unzipping" as an enzyme molecule rolling down a double stranded molecule
>and breaking the bonds between the base pairs which link the two strands as it
>rolls.  This then frees each half of the DNA molecule to replicate itself from
>the abundance of amino acids present in the medium containing the DNA.  Such a
>process requires the energy of metabolism to drive it.  The enzyme that
>energizes many biological processes is adenosine triphosphate (ATP).  ATP
>stores and delivers metabolic energy by changing from its lowest quantum state
>to en excited state, as a consequence of absorption of the energy liberated by
>metabolism.  When the excited ATP molecule reaches a site where the energy can
>be used (e.g., a muscle cell, it releases the stored energy by returning to
>its lowest quantum state.  I suspect (but don't know) that a similar process
>occurs in the case of the enzyme that "unzips" DNA molecules.  For those on
>the list whose sopistication in matters of biochemistry exceeds mine (i.e.,
>almost anybody), if I have misstated the description of this process, please
>correct me and accept my apologies.
>-- 
>----
>Bill P. Curry, Ph.D.          |Physics is fun.
>EMSciTek Consulting Co.       |Trying to make a living!
>22W101 McCarron Road,         |Phone: (630) 858-9377
>Glen Ellyn, IL 60137          |Fax: same, but require prior notice
>
>        Home page:      http://www.EMSciTek.com
>         ____________________________________________________
>        | Analysis, experiment design & software development |
>        |        for engineering and the physical sciences   |
>         ----------------------------------------------------

Dr Peter French, 
Principal Scientific Officer & Manager,
Centre for Immunology, St Vincent's Hospital, 
Sydney, NSW 2010, Australia.

phone 61-2-9361-2388 (bh)
fax 61-2-9361-2391
mobile 0412 457595





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Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.feb.se/EMF-L/EMF-L.html