Arthur Firstenberg is a scientist and journalist who is at the forefront of a global movement to tear down the taboo surrounding this subject. After graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Cornell University with a degree in mathematics, he attended the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine from 1978 to 1982. Injury by X-ray overdose cut short his medical career.
For the past thirty-five years he has been a researcher, consultant, and lecturer on the health and environmental effects of electromagnetic radiation, as well as a practitioner of several healing arts.
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The Invisible rainbow – Arthur Firstenbery
This is an amazing book. It is in my top 10 list of general interest non-fiction books that I've ever read. Arthur Firstenberg revisits the technologies of our day that have shaped our lives in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries―from a health perspective. Telegraphy, electricity, radio, radar, satellites, and cell phones/wi-fi. When each of these technologies was introduced the "wow magic" and utility factors dazzled us, it also blinded most of us as to their other damaging effects―which happen over time―to both our physical body, mind, and our environment, animals and trees included. Undesirable health effects - chronic and temporary. Heart disease, chest pain, heart attacks, cancer, diabetes, obesity, and influenza (the flu) take center stage. But you will also learn about hemophilia, strokes, hair loss, auto-immune diseases, and much more and how they relate to the modern technologies that surround us.
It's a classic case of fixing one problem and causing another, many others. (Pandora's box?).
In just a few hundred pages, Invisible Rainbow, will guide you through the history of these technologies and correlate how they each affected our health and environment―using broad population/environmental statistics to individual stories of famous and non-famous people. Literally, hundreds of studies and data points are referenced and provided in the back of the book for more interested readers to investigate further. But, don't be put off by the inclusion of so many studies, they are weaved together very nicely in a story format. Chapters are clearly defined and if you are particularly interested in one health/environmental aspect over another, you could just skip to that without reading the earlier chapters necessarily. Choose your own adventure!
All studies and news stories noted in the book are referenced clearly or with a link to the bibliography, which is separated by chapters, conveniently. Out of curiosity I double checked about 20-25 of these by finding the source articles/stories on the Internet―from scientific journals (like JAMA), news stories, to various newer & older books, to government publications. They all matched―100%. Others that I didn't check already concurred with my own knowledge base. The scope of research IS breathtaking and fascinating!
Did you know Guglielmo Marconi, one of the inventors and businessmen behind radio technology suffered from debilitating chest pain (angina pectoris) in his 50s before finally succumbing in his early 60s to a heart attack? He suffered other ill effects (both health and social) well before his 50s―but some biographies of Marconi don't mention this, none of them realize the significance of it. Or that Alexander Graham Bell suffered from and died of diabetes? (Diabetes in the 1920s!) Did you know that there were mass bee die offs well before (early 20th century) the recent ones that have been in the media (2000s―Colony Collapse Disorder?) There is another force at work, this book will leave no doubt in your mind. Do you know what event is correlated with the sudden death of track star and Olympic gold medalist Florence Griffith Joyner (Flo-Jo) at the age of 38? Do you know about the rise of sudden cardiac deaths in "healthy athletes?"
For some further background―you may enjoy a BBC documentary called Shock and Awe―The History of Electricity. Watching the video would be a nice companion to Invisible Rainbow. But, the book goes MUCH further and is more broad-minded. Someday, this profound book will be sought after by millions and millions around our world. Read it now and benefit today!