Value chain · CLM-1153
In plain terms
The people who ran the bee tests said so themselves: one species, in boxes whose field strength wandered by a third across the tray, with the questions of whether a warm rectenna would draw insects in winter, and birds after them, still open.
The claim as recorded
The 1980 honey-bee programme states its own limits: its seven anechoic chambers, built for "up to 100" mw/cm2, give "very uniform power densities ... over the entire surface of the exposure area", measured with a probe "calibrated against a reference probe at the U.S. National Bureau of Standards" at 1.42 to 3.33 mw/cm2 for a mean of 2.43 +/- 0.39; "Almost no information is available on the biological effects of CWM on airborne biota"; honey bees are a first, convenient species and "If so, there is a high probability that other insects will fare well too. However, other species must be tested as an additional safeguard"; it leaves open whether insects "absorb sufficient energy in the rectennal area to make this an attractive overwintering site" and whether birds would follow them; and it prints that "Because of their small size, invertebrates, especially insects" "should be nearly visible to SPS microwaves", which remains to be determined by experiment.
Evidence behind this: T3-the programme's own statement of what its chambers can and cannot do and of what it leaves untested, quoted from the report.
Scope and limits
THE PAGE PRINTS "nearly visible" WHERE THE PHYSICS (a body far smaller than the 12 cm wavelength) AND THE NEXT SENTENCE READ "invisible"; quoted as printed, the likely intended word stated here, not repaired. The nonuniformity figure is the mapped 16 cm centre strip, seven scans at 2 cm; the tables' nominal densities are platform means. The overwintering and bird questions are the report's, unanswered in it and, as far as the register holds, since (SRC-454's 1984 avian behaviour study is the nearest).
What it assumes
No assumptions are recorded against this claim.
Where it comes from
PDF 30-32 / printed 20-22: "it is designed to accommodate much higher power densities than before, viz., up to 100" (normalised) mw/cm2; "very uniform power densities are found over the entire surface of the exposure area" (normalised); "calibrated against a reference probe at the U.S. National Bureau of Standards" (normalised); "the power densities over the exposure platform varied from 1.42 to 3.33 mw/cm2 (mean and standard deviation= 2.43" +/- 0.39) (normalised). PDF 40 / printed 31: "Almost no information is available on the biological effects of CWM on airborne biota" (normalised). PDF 13 / printed 3: "Honey bees, for example, are required to pollinate approximately one-third of the food produced in the United States" (normalised); "Would they absorb sufficient energy in the rectennal area to make this an attractive overwintering site" (normalised). PDF 14 / printed 4 (render read): "If so, there is a high probability that other insects will fare well too. However, other species must be tested as an additional safeguard" (normalised); "Because of their small size, invertebrates, especially insects" (normalised) "should be nearly visible to SPS microwaves" (normalised), followed by the sentence that this remains to be determined by carefully conducted experiments (render reading; the layer prints "detennined"). Recomputed: 0.39 / 2.43 = 16 per cent one sigma; (1.42 - 2.43) / 2.43 = -42 per cent and (3.33 - 2.43) / 2.43 = +37 per cent.
Basis: mW/cm2 across a 61 x 61 cm platform; species tested
Cite this
energyaperture.com/c/clm-1153
CLM-1153, Energy Aperture, as of 1980-12.
Connected records
Other published records linked to this one. A list, not a judgement.
- Also from SRC-537
- CLM-1147The 1980 programme's experiments on bees, at strengths from the edge of a rectenna to about twice its centre, found nothing: eggs hatched...CLM-1148Bee eggs, grubs and pupae zapped for half an hour at up to twice the beam-centre strength grew into normal adults at the same rate as...CLM-1149One hive lived for four weeks, a full brood cycle, under the beam strength expected at the edge of a receiving station, and behaved like...CLM-1150Six thousand bees took part, 2,500 of them dosed, and were let go a hundred metres from home; the dosed ones found their hive as often as...CLM-1151Bees kept a full day at up to twice the beam-centre strength (fifty times the beam-edge level), alone or huddled, ate and lived afterwards...CLM-1152Bees flew four hundred metres to a sugar dish sitting in a microwave field nearly twice the beam-centre strength, went in without...