The Sciku Project

radio waves—
I roll over
and try not to think

by Tony Williams

Have you ever wondered if radio waves are harmful? Maybe not lose sleep over it! There are many interesting articles to read about the subject, and research is ongoing, as it should be. The long and the short(wave) of it, according to expert opinions is yes, radio waves can affect us, but under normal circumstances the effect is believed to be slight – perhaps warming us by less than 0.2°C. On balance, I think it is advisable to reduce our overall exposure and, if possible, try to persuade our kids to limit phone use. Good luck with that!

Further reading:

‘Radiofrequencies and health : where are we ?’, 2025, Encyclopedia of the Environment, available: https://www.encyclopedie-environnement.org/en/health/radiofrequencies-health/

‘Radiowave Effects on Humans’, 1980, Davis, N., Geophysical Institute, available: https://www.gi.alaska.edu/alaska-science-forum/radiowave-effects-humans

Author bio:

Tony Williams from Scotland, UK, started writing haiku and senryu in 2020. Since then he has been published widely in many fine journals and picked up some awards. Tony takes inspiration from spending time in nature. He is not unhappily retired.

Read other sciku by Tony here: ‘Spooky Action’ and ‘ToE…’.

Entangled worm blob
Seeking connection with mates
Much like a mosh pit

by Kathy Gillen

In laboratory culture conditions California blackworms huddle together, but why? California blackworms (Lumbriculus variegatus) are widely distributed freshwater annelids that are easy to care for in the lab (1). In the wild these detritivores stick their heads into the muck at the edges of ponds and rivers while their tails extend through the water column for gas exchange. In lab culture consisting of worms in bowls of artificial freshwater, the worms form tangled masses that with a touch from a pipette wriggle apart. This behavior fascinates students and students frequently ask why the worms form knotted blobs.

One explanation for the worm blobs is that lacking a substrate such as mud to stick their heads into, the worms instead burrow into each other. Whether or not this is correct, in worms, as in other animals, aggregating provides benefits. Researchers manipulated blob sizes and found that larger blobs help more worms survive thermal stress in a temperature gradient experiment. And blobs of worms better withstand desiccation stress (2). Additionally the physics of the entangled masses themselves are being examined, research that may pave the way for bioinspired materials with useful new properties (3,4). Long used as model organisms in whole body regeneration and in environmental toxicology studies, the California blackworm continues to provide new research avenues.

Further reading:

1. ‘It Cuts Both Ways: An Annelid Model System for the Study of Regeneration in the Laboratory and in the Classroom’, 2021, Martinez Acosta, V.G., Arellano-Carbajal, F., Gillen, K., Tweeten, K.A., Zattara, E.E. Front Cell Dev Biol 9, 780422. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcell.2021.780422
2. ‘Collective dynamics in entangled worm and robot blobs’, 2021, Ozkan-Aydin, Y., Goldman, D.I., Bhamla, M.S. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118, e2010542118. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2010542118
3. ‘Following the entangled state of filaments’, 2023, Panagiotou, E. Science 380, 340–341. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adh4055
4. ‘Ultrafast reversible self-assembly of living tangled matter’, 2023, Patil, V.P., Tuazon, H., Kaufman, E., Chakrabortty, T., Qin, D., Dunkel, J., Bhamla, M.S. Science 380, 392–398. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.ade7759

Author bio:

Kathy Gillen teaches and conducts research at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. Her Kenyon profile can be found here: https://www.kenyon.edu/directory/kathy-gillen/