17

Introduction

Te fourth part of this book deals with the safety issues derived from biological and health risk assess­

ment research developments. Chapter 7 introduces the concepts of existing safety guidelines developed

by international bodies such as the ICNIRP and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

(IEEE/ICES). In these safety guidelines, limit values are stipulated in terms of internal (in situ) electric

felds for frequencies lower than 10 MHz (ICNIRP) or 5 MHz (IEEE), and limit values for SAR (specifc

absorption rate) are stipulated for frequencies higher than 100 kHz, based on biological efects of elec­

tric and magnetic felds, i.e., stimulation of nerves at low frequencies and temperature increase at high

frequencies. Te discussions presented in this chapter can be used as a guide when evaluating daily life

safety related to electric and magnetic phenomena.

1.6 Summary and Perspective

Bioelectromagnetism is an interdisciplinary research feld that involves many areas of investigation. In

this book, the introduction to the research history of bioelectromagnetism is presented frst. Later, the

relationship between atmospheric electric phenomena and geomagnetism with biological systems and

the environment is shown. Aferward, the current status of research on magnetic sensing in cells, ani­

mals, plants and humans, which is expected to progress in the future in relation with quantum biology,

is examined. Te last chapter deals with the most recent eforts to protect human health and to improve

the safety of the electromagnetic environment that exists around us.

Te diferent areas of bioelectromagnetism are still developing and expanding from molecular and

cellular levels to the human body interaction with electromagnetism. Te authors of each chapter are

experts in their respective area. All the chapters were created with great pleasure while at the same

time attempting to clearly explain the background and recent advances in each feld. In this sense, it is

expected that the readers will be able to appreciate the essence of this growing feld.

Although the important events in the history of bioelectromagnetism are chronologically structural­

ized in this book, the detection of electromagnetic phenomena by living systems is an age-old question.

Te research in bioelectromagnetism has attempted to clarify these relationships by relying in classical

physics and life phenomena. For example, with the support of technology, methods for detecting elec­

tromagnetic phenomena from inside of the body such as ECG and EEG were developed, and they have

made signifcant contributions to today’s medicine.

Today, it is well known that quantum biology began with an idea of Erwin Schrödinger, who in

February of 1943 gave a lecture about the fusion of quantum physics and biology at the Trinity College,

Dublin, leading to the foundation of what is now quantum biology. During the 1900s, Max Plank and

Albert Einstein advocated for the quantum theory, and in consequence quantum mechanics advanced

greatly. Subsequently, quantum mechanics and biology would eventually become combined as Einstein

had already predicted, and quantum biology was born. In particular, Schrödinger’s book, What Is life?,

published in 1944 based on his lecture of 1943, was a signifcant breakthrough that led to large develop­

ments in quantum biology, continuing until this day.

Life phenomena have a hierarchical structure that goes from a microscopic-level for electrons and

atoms to the macroscopic level of molecules/cells, tissues, organs and living beings. In this context,

quantum theory and quantum mechanics introduced quantum biology in order to clarify life phenom­

ena at the microscopic level, explained by means of classical physics. For example, attempts have been

made to try to explain that the magnetoreception of birds, based on geomagnetism for migration, is

caused by a phenomenon of quantum entanglement in the retina. It is hypothesized that this phenom­

enon can be caused by the generation of radical pairs in the favor-protein cryptochrome (FAD) upon

sensing a weak magnetic feld, a reaction that involves the transfer of electrons excited by light stimuli.

By using quantum theory and quantum mechanics, we will be able to elucidate phenomena such as

diferentiation, development and proliferation of cancer cells, DNA, mutation, photosynthesis, enzy­

matic reactions and magnetoreception, all of which are the targets of research at electronic and atomic

levels, related to the biological efects of electromagnetic felds in bioelectromagnetism. Further, with