Biological systems Electromagnetic fields

Sauer FA (1983) Forces on suspended particles in the electromagnetic field. In Frohlich H, Kremer F (eds) Coherent Excitations in Biological Systems. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, p 134... 

Electromagnetic-Field Interaction with Biological Systems in the Microwave and Far-Infrared Region... 

The physical basis for the interaction between biological systems and electromagnetic (EM) fields must rest, in part, on the separate dielectric and spectroscopic properties of the molecular constituents and aggregates that comprise the biological system. 

Illinger, K.H. "Interaction between Microwave and Millimeter-Wave Electromagnetic Fields and Biological Systems Molecular Mechanisms", in "Biological Effects and Health Hazards of Microwave Radiation", Proc. Intern. Symposium, Czerski, P. et. al., Eds. (Polish Medical Publishers Warsaw, 1974) p. 160. 

On the basis of Frohlich s suggestions and the properties of biological systems (vid. models 2, 3) one may take into account the following possible interactions of an electromagnetic field with biological systems (16, 17) ... 

Adey, W. R. Long-range electromagnetic field interactions at brain cell surfaces. In "Magnetic Field Effect on Biological Systems" T. Tenforde, Ed. Plenum Press New York, 1979 pp. 57-78. 

Presently there exists no generally accepted theory of how very weak electromagnetic fields couple nonthermally to a biosystem. This is the basis for part of the controversy. Some of the hypotheses that have been suggested to explain such nonthermal interactions of the electric field component will be reviewed herein with an emphasis on those that focus on interactions with biological membranes. It will then be shown how some of these hypotheses might be tested by electrostatically modulating the response. Electrostatic modulation can be achieved by modifying the electrochemical environment of the system. 

It must be kept in mind that this general area of nonthermal effects is far from being a mature, well-developed subdiscipline of electromagnetic field effects on biological systems. The material presented in this chapter was selected with the intent of suggesting new protocols, both experimental and theoretical, that will possibly further the development of this field. 

Perhaps it is appropriate to interject here that many of the attempts at modeling the effects of electromagnetic fields on biological systems have been, to put it mildly, highly conjectural. An attempt to justify such a conjectural approach has been discussed by Frohlich. It is apparent, however, that there should be a more conscious effort to correlate theory and experiment, especially in the area of membrane effects. 

Such structures by the way are consistent with the ideas proposed by Frohlich in the sense that they can be switched to a coherent mode. A nonequilibrium phase transition that manifest itself as a limit cycle is a familiar example of such a phenomenon.The possible role of these types of nonequilibrium phase transitions in governing the interaction of external electromagnetic fields with biological systems has been discussed by Kaiser. 

Lin J (ed) (2011) Electromagnetic fields in biological systems. CRC Press, Boca Raton, p 381... 

The various fields that make up a science tend naturally to integrate, and with time such a process can lead to a true synthesis. Physics was the first science to achieve a synthesis of its disciplines, and it may be useful to compare that experience with its biological counterpart. The first unification occurred between mechanics and thermodynamics, in the first half of the nineteenth century, and the second came shortly afterwards, with the integration of electromagnetism. The result was the imposing edifice of classical physics, a conceptual system that described all reality in terms of particles and waves, with equations that seemed perfect because they were perfectly deterministic. The common denominator of all branches of classical physics was in fact the concept of determinism, and nodoby doubted, in the nineteenth century, that that was the true logic of the universe. 

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