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Many people never think about what I am about to say. We live in a world where we are being bombarded by more and different types of waves every day. We can almost say that we are swimming in a sea of these waves. Some waves are of our making and others are there because mother nature decided to put them there. Even if we lived in a low technology society, we would still be surrounded by some waves, but we don't live in a low tech world but a comparatively high tech one that is getting more high tech every passing day. Maybe we are getting too high tech in some areas for our own good? If you look around you, you will have to notice that almost everyone has at least one television set and maybe more. Why do I mention this? It is because many of these sets still receive signals from waves that travel through the air.
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When waves travel through the air, is our body effected? That is the sixty four thousand dollar question. I never felt that this was a good thing, but all the companies involved say the waves are harmless. We have had tv around for many years, yet the waves that are sent to the antenna in the form of a tv signal don/t seem harmful, but how can we be sure? I don't think that you can feel completely safe. How do we know that they don't effect most of us but are harmful to some? The good thing about tv is that it is a device that we don't have to put right next to us to use. It is not like a cell phone that goes right up to the side of our face as it is drawing in signals or waves. If you put an aerial right next to your face there is bound to be some spillage going into your body. I am not saying that this is harmful necessarily, but in its least capacity, it is certainly not helping you, biology wise. Not only that, but the more you use the cell phone, the more was you catch. By the way it is a two way street. Things like cell phones are also putting out waves and these are also entering your body when you hold the phone close to your head.
There are some gadgets out there that having you wear them, like a radio in a pair of glasses. This also places the ariel next to your face and some of the spillage from the radio waves might be absorbed. All waves are not created equal. We have so many devices now days that send signals through the air and receive signals. Wireless laptop computers are constantly sending and receiving when they are hooked up to the internet. Many people keep them on their laps, I guess that is why they are called laptops. While there is no proof that this is a harmful practice, I don't like the idea. I prefer to put them on a table or other surface when ever one is available. Soon our kitchen devices will be connected to the internet and each one will be receiving and sending thus causing the kitchens of the future to be flooded with more waves. High tension electric lines put out waves, although after many tests they are said to be harmless. People still complain of various illnesses that live under these things. Maybe we don't know enough about them to construct a proper test in the right area? Wouldn't you be angry if you found out that some future test found that certain waves were harmful and our present tests never showed this?
Apparently most light waves are not harmful since we live in a world smothered in light. Sometimes some of these simple things like light waves can be made to be very dangerous. Look at what a laser can do. It is agitated light and can cut through steel at the right frequency. A laser generates an electromagnetic wave that is on a single wavelength that can be focused to a concentrated point. We are also surrounded by sound waves. Everywhere we go we hear sounds, they are part of our every day lives, yet look at what we can do with sound if we wish. We can use it to take pictures that resemble x-rays, this is called ultrasound. Sound can also be used to create shock waves like those you feel when there is an explosion. If applied properly this makes a devastating weapon. We are now using sound to drive away attackers from ships. The sounds can be applied in 120 decibel bursts and are physically disabling. You may recall that a luxury liner used such a weapon to drive off pirates. Sound waves can be used for some deadly purposes. They can pass through structures without damage and yet if they are of the proper length, can cause people to choke, gasp for air or even cause terrible headaches.
What about our useful friend the microwave. The microwave oven is one of the great inventions of the 20th century, but it certainly wasn't the first use of microwaves. Microwaves are electromagnetic waves with wavelengths longer than those of Terahertz (THz) wavelengths, but relatively short for radio waves. They are all around us in tv signals and have many other uses. Recently we have begun to hear of microwave weapons being developed. The truth of the matter is that the Japanese were working on microwave weapons in World War II and were trying to figure a way they could protect their homeland from invasion with this type of weapon. They ran into a problem, it just took too much energy for the defense that they were working on. They would have needed to generate as much electric to power the machines, as there was generated for the entire world. Today there are said to be machines that are battlefield ready that can generate microwaves that can burn the skin in non lethal situations, or if turned up can blind and boil. Not a very pleasant thought.
What about our natural state, what kind of rays do we face? Well as I said there are light and sound waves, but there are also cosmic rays that bombard the earth, but we are protected from them by our atmosphere. While technically not a wave but a particle, neutrinos are constantly bombarding the earth. These things not only pass through us every day but also through the earth. Most scientists believe that the neutrino has no mass and because of this, does no harm. It is not understood very well. The sun sends us ultraviolet radiation. Too much of this can be harmful to our bodies. Gravity even exists in waves in some places, such as near black holes and neutron stars. Then there is the ocean that send out waves made of water. Yes we live in a world of waves.