From ER to E.T.

Rajeev Bansal, PhD, is a professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Connecticut. He is a member of IEEE and the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering. He is a Fellow of the Electromagnetics Academy. His editing credits include Fundamentals of Engineering Electromagnetics and  Engineering Electromagnetics: Applications. Dr. Bansal contributes regular columns to IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine and IEEE Microwave Magazine.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR ix PREFACE xi

1 ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS 1

1.1 He(a)dy Stuff / 1

1.2 From Russia without English / 3

1.3 On the Shoulders of Giants / 5

1.4 Do-it-yourself Execution? / 8

1.5 Franklin: Did He or Didn’t He? / 10

1.6 De Magnete (“On the Magnet”) / 12

1.7 A Eureka Moment / 15

1.8 Auld Lang Syne / 17

1.9 As Singular as a Delta Function? / 19

1.10 Publish or Perish? / 21

DID YOU KNOW? 24

2 THE EARTH AND BEYOND 27

2.1 In the Eye of the Beholder / 27

2.2 Roses are Red, Violets are Blue… / 30

2.3 2003: An Earth Odyssey? / 32

2.4 Which Came First: Big Bang or Big Crunch? / 34

2.5 Whistling in the Dark? / 36

2.6 Going Beyond a Selfie / 38

DID YOU KNOW? 41

3 SEARCH FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL INTELLIGENCE (SETI) 45

3.1 Little Green Men: A Phantom Menace? / 45

3.2 Waiting for Godot? / 47

3.3 Is There Anybody There? / 49

3.4 Science or Science Fiction? / 51

DID YOU KNOW? 54

4 PROFESSIONALISM: ETHICS AND LAW 59

4.1 Did Maxwell Pull a Fast One? / 59

4.2 Cell Phones and Cancer: Anatomy of a Legal Opinion / 61

4.3 Happy 200th Anniversary! / 64

4.4 Einstein Doesn’t Work Here Anymore / 66

4.5 It is a Bird. It is a Plane. It is… / 68

DID YOU KNOW? 71

5 HEALTH EFFECTS OF ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS 75

5.1 Say Au Revoir to Cell Phones? / 75

5.2 Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity / 78

5.3 From Bell Tower to Cell Tower / 80

5.4 Nocebo: Reading This Column may Affect Your Health / 83

5.5 Magnetic Pull: Biological Effects or Medical Applications? / 85

5.6 Close Encounters With Radiation of the Other Kind / 88

DID YOU KNOW? 91

6 BIOMEDICAL APPLICATIONS 95

6.1 How Many Biologists Does it Take to Fix a Radio? / 95

6.2 The Grand Challenges / 97

6.3 Biomedical Applications: Taking Stock / 99

6.4 Tugging at the Heartstrings / 101

6.5 A Jolt from the Blue? / 103

6.6 Channeling the Voice Within / 105

6.7 Battling Cancer: Microwave Hyperthermia / 107

DID YOU KNOW? 110

7 DEFENSE APPLICATIONS 113

7.1 Where is Waldo? / 113

7.2 Antimagnet / 115

7.3 Cutting to the Chase / 117

7.4 Twenty-First Century Warfare / 119

7.5 On a Wing and a Prayer / 121

7.6 ELF Communication: An Obituary / 122

7.7 Catching up with Professor Scarry / 124

7.8 Criminal Interference / 126

7.9 Wireless Networks: An Electronic Battlefield? / 130

DID YOU KNOW? 133

8 DOMESTIC AND INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS 137

8.1 Blowin’ in the Wind / 137

8.2 Sharing the Road / 139

8.3 Rare no More? / 141

8.4 Local Heating? / 143

8.5 Coming Soon to a Wal-Mart Near You / 145

8.6 Has Your Cat Gone Phishing? / 148

8.7 The Future of Wireless Charging / 150

8.8 Electropollution or Sustainable Energy? / 151

DID YOU KNOW? 154

9 COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS 157

9.1 Small is Beautiful / 157

9.2 Gigabit Wi-Fi / 159

9.3 Open Spectrum: A Tragedy of the Commons? / 161

9.4 Near-Field Communication / 163

9.5 A New Digital Phone? / 165

9.6 Electronic Countermeasures / 167

DID YOU KNOW? 170

10 LIFELONG LEARNING 175

10.1 Back to Basics / 175

10.2 Preaching to the Choir? / 177

10.3 The Other Davos? / 180

10.4 Mirror, Mirror on the Wall; who is the Fairest of Them All? / 182

10.5 Equations Redux / 184

10.6 New Year’s Resolutions Laws / 185

10.7 Through a Glass Darkly / 187

10.8 Stranger Than Fiction? / 189

10.9 High Frequency Education: What Do You Think? / 191

AFTERWORD 195

INDEX 197