For years, debate has been rife whether sleeping with your wifi on is detrimental to health or not.
While research has been sketchy either way, scientists have not been able to reach any conclusion on the matter.
However, a group of school girls in Denmark decided to conduct a similar study on plants, and the results were shocking to say the least.
How was the experiment carried out?
The school students conducted an experiment, where they found that cress seeds placed near wifi routers failed to grow and eventually died, while those in a separate room thrived and grew as normal, suggesting a potential negative impact of wifi radiation on plant growth.
To achieve this, the girls decided to conduct this experiment after facing sleep disturbances, and concentration issues at night, while their phones were kept close to them. They then deduced that if humans can be so affected, what about plants?
What followed next
The students then grew some cress seeds in trays, placing half of them near two wifi routers, and the other half in a room without routers. After 12 days, it was observed that the seeds near the router failed to grow, and eventually died, while those in the other room thrived and grew normally. The simple experiment attracted widespread attention against the potential impact of wifi. A follow up study by the same students, looked deeper into the potential radiation on germination and growth of broccoli, pea, red clover, and garden cress seedlings. The experiment showed that wifi radiation reduced root and shoot growth, sped up chlorosis, altered leaf size, and reduced fine root hairs in several of the species tested.
Partial replication
However, soon after, a partial replication of the same study was carried out by scientists using garden cress (Lepidium sativum), broccoli (Brassica oleracea), red clover (Trifolium pratense) and pea (Pisum sativum). For the same, one lot of seeds were placed in Petri plates in a germination chamber kept under controlled conditions, exposed to microwave radiation from a wifi counter. The other set was kept in a room with no wifi router, and much lower microwave radiation. The findings after one month? The radiation from the wifi router did not affect germination of any of the species tested. However, there was a significant reduction in the dry weight of the broccoli and peas.
What was the conclusion?
While the original experiment, conducted by school girls did show an alarming difference on the effect of wifi on plants, it needs to be remembered that it was not a scientific study. While more research is needed on the matter, it is a fascinating study, and one that opens the doors to many such experiments in the future.
