Earth is surrounded by a protective atmosphere. This atmosphere stops many harmful rays from getting through to us and causing damage. For thousands and maybe hundreds of thousands or even millions of years, people have been living on this planet without any electrical devices of any kind. I know, you think that I am crazy for saying hundreds of thousands or millions of years when I speak of human life, but you have to remember that I subscribe to the fact that there were many discoveries that have been disregarded in this area, but that is not what this particular discussion is about. Even if humans were only on this planet for 25,000 years or so, they still spent about 24,900 years without electricity. I am not talking about batteries, but electrical connections to their homes. Because of this, it is only recently that we have been subject to things like electromagnetic waves from power lines. We have cell phones, Ipods, pdas, laptops, desktops and a whole host of other things that are giving off some type of waves that humans have never been subject to before. Maybe we might be told that there is nothing to worry about and indeed this may be true, but until these things have been around for some time, how we will ever know if they have an impact on our development? Look what is happening to some bees, they are flying away from the hives, never to be seen again. Has this stuff affected their brains?

Lets take something very basic, sound waves. Have you ever been subject to an automobile passing you, either on the road or in the street, that had its radio or cd player volume up so high that you could hear it coming from blocks away? I have and imagine the damage this is doing to the eardrums of the passengers. There is no doubt that loud sounds can cause loss of hearing. We know this because people that have worked on jobs without ear protection, that had continuous loud sounds, have suffered a much higher rate of hearing loss than the general public. Too bad I don't have any hearing loss stats for people that drive with the volume turned all the way up in their cars. Sound is only the tip of the iceberg however. There are so many other waves out there that didn't exist on earth before. There are also waves that are penetrating to the Earth because of the hole in the ozone layer. These are cosmic rays. Cosmic rays are energetic particles originating from space that hit Earth's atmosphere, which acts as our protective shield.

Microwave
Photo Source: MorgueFile - Paul Anderson

Almost everything that is electronic is putting out waves. Many of the devices we are using put out electromagnetic radiation know as EM. These waves actually oscillate. The waves are called electromagnetic because they contain both the properties of magnetism and electricity. The two waves meet at right angles and spread out from the point of origin. We find these waves in many things that we use every day and in some of our medical devices, just to mention a few areas where they are. Microwave ovens give out deadly rays, but are shielded, so that we don't damage ourselves. Since these waves heat things from the inside out, it would not be very pleasant for us if we got microwaved. The waves are so damaging that the military is creating weapons from this concept. Radio waves surround us every day. They can be miles long or much shorter, depending on the type of broadcast. They have been with us about 100 years and seem to be harmless, but on the cosmic scale, that is nothing. Will we find out after a few thousand years that they were really harmful and we didn't realize it? Radio waves were completely unknown until they were predicted in 1865 by James Clerk Maxwell. They were first created in 1887 by Hennrich Hertz.

When we talk about waves, it is interesting to note the different lengths, here is the order from longer to shorter:
Radio Waves
Microwaves
Infrared
Visible Light
X-rays
Gamma Rays
Cosmic Rays

As you can see, cosmic rays are the shortest waves and radio waves the longest, with many different kinds of waves in between. Here is an interesting point, light is a wave and we can see some of it. We can not see the entire spectrum. Imagine if we had the ability to see all the different waves or even far more than we do now. It makes you wonder if man will ever develop this ability? Nature has a way of compensating for things. Since many of the waves on Earth didn't exist before, could it be that in a few thousand years man's vision will be far superior to what it is now? He might even be able to detect radio waves. I guess this would hurt some of the electronics business, because if man could see the radiation coming from his devices, maybe he wouldn't want them?

X-rays are our friends, but they are a friend that can betray us. Before anyone knew how dangerous X-rays could be, they were used very routinely. People taking X-Rays of patients never bothered to protect themselves from the rays or waves and consequently the radiation killed them. The X-rays in the old days were far more powerful than the ones used today. There was even a machine that you stuck your feet into in the shoe store that took an X-ray of your foot so that you could see if your shoe fit right or even more scary, if you children's shoes fit correctly. Yes X-ray were used very cavalierly when they first were invented.and even for quite a few years afterward.

The common cathode ray television can even present a danger to us, or at least this is what science has been saying for years because of the voltage and creation of X-rays in the cathode ray tube, yet most tvs have not been found to give off radiation at any level that can be measured. In case you are wondering who sets the standard for this stuff, it is the same people that allowed tainted food from China and all those crops that contained Salmonella. I don't know about you, but it does shake my confidence. None of this means that we are not subject to any waves at all. On the contrary we are hit by natural waves of energy every day of our lives. Light comes in the form of a wave, as I stated above. It hits us all the time. We all know the dangers of too much sunlight, you will get a sunburn and it can even cause cancer. There are even waves that go right through us without any sign of harm, they are called neutrinos. They have the ability to pass through almost anything and are only detected by the trail that they make in giant vats of cleaning fluid, in deep underground vaults.

We have created atomic radiation, which is a wave and is very dangerous along with many other types of waves. Will we find out someday that we have altered our very dna? As I like to say, something may not seem bad, but if you get too much of it, it can not be a good thing.