— The past two decades have brought rapid advances in technology that have greatly influenced our daily lives. But have these technologies introduced new health risks along with new conveniences? Unfortunately, the development of electronic gadgets seems to be outpacing the development of techniques for measuring their effects on our bodies. As a result, it remains difficult to directly test if a new electronic device is dangerous. These limitations have been particularly apparent in our continued efforts to determine whether cell phones harm our brains. Most recently, a study showed that cellular phones result in an increase in brain glucose metabolism on the side of the head where the user is holding the phone1. This finding attracted a great deal of attention from mainstream media2, but no one is certain how to interpret the results. This begs the question: why are these findings difficult to understand, and why have we been unable to conclude once and for all whether cell phones are safe or harmful? Continue reading Cell Phones And The Brain: Can We Tell Whether Cell Phones Are Harmful?