Describes a school experiment comparing algae photosynthesis under different electromagnetic exposures, r…

Rebecca Zhuo, individual member of the public. Responding to Questions 2, 3(f), and 14.

My 9th grade science fair project, "The Effect of Electromagnetic Fields on Living Organisms," found that electromagnetic fields do harm living organisms, and that the more electromagnetic field exposure the living organisms received, the less healthy they became. The project won First Place in Category at the 2008 Synopsys Silicon Valley Science and Technology Championship in San Jose, California, a competitive science fair for middle and high school students across the region (awards list: https://science-fair.org/pdfs/list-student-awards-upper-2008.pdf).

We placed equal amounts of algae in test tubes full of water and wrapped the tubes with different amounts of wire carrying an electric current, leaving one tube unwrapped as a control. We then waited several weeks and measured the oxygen bubble the algae produced, a direct sign of the amount of photosynthesis the algae in each test tube were doing. When the judges asked whether our results had changed our own behavior, we pointed out that we had put our cell phones on the table instead of in our pockets.

I wanted to share this science fair experiment so that other high school students could try this experiment and see the effects of electromagnetic fields on living organisms for themselves.

I would like to thank my high school physics teacher Mr. Briber who let us run this experiment in the back of his classroom and supported us throughout our 9th grade science fair project.