Transcript
This transcript was typed from a recording of the program. The ABC cannot guarantee its complete accuracy because of the possibility of mishearing and occasional difficulty in identifying speakers.
Robyn Williams: A few days ago I came to possess for the first time a mobile phone. I found it in the street, as the rain poured down, its screen flashing bright. I picked it up and dried it, and put it in my pocket. A few minutes later it started to vibrate. Something of an intimate shock, I must confess, though I suppose you're used to it.
The person calling was, apparently, the owner's girlfriend. Her unclothed picture was a feature on the screen. We arranged to return the phone the following day. I handed it over in a bar and made a very fast exit. So I've had a mobile phone in my life, for less than a day. I do believe Barrie Oldfield would approve.
Barrie Oldfield thinks they're killing frogs. And I do believe he's serious. Now on the face of it, the radiation coming out of a phone is so tiny it wouldn't threaten a fragile flea, let alone a frog. What's more, though frogs are certainly being exterminated by something, it's happening in places like the Andes, where phones are few.
Finally there's a perfectly clear explanation of what's going on: Chytrid fungus, brought here by fronts used in pregnancy tests way back, went feral, and spread the disease. But Barrie Oldfield thinks otherwise. He's from Men of the Trees in Perth.
Barrie Oldfield: 2008 has been designated International Year of the Frog. Scientists all over the world will be comparing notes and undertaking broad-based research into why frog populations everywhere are in decline. May I add another theory for consideration?
Frogs are being microwaved.
Ever since microwave ovens were introduced, we have been protected from our own carelessness. Apart from printed warnings all over the ovens there is also a heavily screened door preventing the escape of the lethal radiation, and the door is interlocked with an isolator switch so that the oven cannot be switched on with the door open. Microwave ovens have been in common use now for a quarter of a century. Through daily experience we've come to learn the principle by which they work. Things that are perfectly dry do not heat up at all. You can't warm plates in a microwave. Food must be moist if cooking is to take place.
Why is this? Heat is a manifestation of energy. When an object becomes warm the molecules of which it is made start to jiggle about. In a solid object the jiggling is confined to a limited space. The hotter the object becomes, the more violent the jiggling, which tends to push out the boundaries of that space, which is why most solid objects expand slightly as they get warmer. But in a liquid the molecules can move around everywhere. Their jiggling knows no bounds, so they dance around all over the place. If the applied heat is in the form of a flame under the kettle, then the jiggling is random. Molecules of water dither and jiggle, bumping into each other, bounding up and down and sideways, some slightly faster than others, some becoming caught up in mini-whirlpools. The molecules of water dance around in a truly random way.
Because the principle of microwave cooking is the excitement of water molecules by the application of ultra-high frequency radio waves, the jiggling takes on a rhythmic pattern determined by the nature of the electromagnetic radiation being applied. Think of water molecules as being like people. On a busy market day people are milling
