296
The Body Electric
That situation has changed in the last few years. Several experi-
menters, notably Stephen Smith, have now proven that the Electro-
biology bone-healing device, using 15 pulse-bursts per second, speeds
up the division rate of cells that are already proliferating rapidly. Among
normal cells, this includes skin, gut, and liver cells. In 1983, A. R.
Liboff, a biophysicist at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan,
reported on the effects of a more inclusive set of parameters. Magnetic
fields of 0.2 to 4 gauss, vibrating at 10 to 4,000 hertz, all enhanced the
replication of DNA during the S (synthesis) phase of mitosis.
As predicted, the interaction appears to be greatest between 35 and
100 hertz. Jose M. R. Delgado—the flamboyant advocate of a "psycho-
civilized" society through mind control, who has publicized direct elec-
trical stimulation of the brain by such displays as stopping a charging
bull in its tracks with a radio impulse transmitted to an implanted elec-
trode—recently reported results of a genetic study of magnetic fields at
three frequencies. Delgado placed chick embryos in minuscule magnetic
fields pulsed at 10, 100, and 1,000 hertz. He used fields of only 0.001
gauss, or roughly the strength of the earth field's micropulsations.
Chicks exposed to the 10-hertz fields were normal, but those dosed at
100 hertz developed severe defects of the central nervous system. The
highest frequency also yielded abnormalities, but they were much less
severe. Higher intensities are common in homes, in offices, and near
power lines. The Navy has found stronger fields near its 76-H3 ELF
antenna and reradiated at that frequency from a power line a mile away.
It's important to bear in mind that, in stimulating DNA synthesis,
an electromagnetic field doesn't distinguish between desirable and un-
desirable growth. It affects all cells in the same way, but cell systems
that are already rapidly dividing are speeded up the most. As we've seen
in earlier chapters, these susceptible processes include healing, em-
bryonic growth, and cancer.* In fact, a researcher working on the New
York State Department of Health's power line project, Wendell Winters
of the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in San Antonio, re-
cently reported some of the first laboratory evidence that power frequen-
cies can accelerate malignant growth. Winters exposed human cancer
cells to 60-hertz electromagnetic fields for just twenty-four hours, and
found a sixfold increase in their growth rate seven to ten days later.
*Only the magnetic component appears to accelerate healing in any way. Power-
frequency electric fields severely retard fracture healing in rats, as Andy Marino, Jim
Cullen, Maria Reichmanis, and I proved with a series of experiment in 1979. This work
was confirmed the following year by R. D. Phillips in a study done for a Department of
Energy review of
transmission line bioeffects.