Yes. It has been known for decades that biological matter resonates at microwave frequencies but we've been told over and over that non-ionizing radiations cannot cause cancer [0]. DNA is an electricly charged dipole that will heat up when exposed to microwaves and that would damage it [1].
There's a lot of water in the way between DNA and any microwave source. Microwaves do not penetrate water very well - part of the reason rain tends to cause problems with microwave links. Also the reason microwave ovens work: by heating the food.
So what is the proposed mechanism by which microwave energy is supposed to heat DNA enough to damage it?
Most of the microwave power does not deeply penetrate something like a whole ham. The microwaves are mostly absorbed by the outer layers and then the heat conducts through the inner portions.
The journal article below contains lots of detail. It claims that microwaves penetrate about 3.8 mm in cooked ham and 9.9 mm in cooked beef.
> The microwaves are mostly absorbed by the
> outer layers and then the heat conducts
> through the inner portions.
Then why does the plate have to be slowly rotated within the oven? I used to believe that it was for the waves peaks (distant from one another by a pair of centimeters) to be able to reach every point of the inside.
But if the inside is heated by conduction, which propagates evenly in all directions, then why care rotating the plate?
Microwave ovens do indeed have hot spots[0]. Conduction doesn't propagate evenly in very many foodstuffs, and you still want to avoid overheating any one spot.
About the only thing that can be reasonably uniformly heated in a microwave at continuous full power is a water-based liquid and that only because of convection.
Put a slab of meat in for a minute at 100% power and it'll be still cold in the center.
I was surprised by the table. Temperature matters way more than I'd expect for water, and it seems ice may in fact be effectively transparent to microwaves? Now I want to fiddle when I get home... it looks an awful lot like you can put a cup of water and a chunk of ice in a microwave and boil the water while the ice is still frozen... (though I'm going to assume that number for ice is pure ice; air bubbles in ice may wreck this up) Experimentation time!
Someone came up with a recipe exploiting the fact that microwaves are absorbed much more readily by fluids than solids. It was a frozen meringue with a hot center. I think it was in Sci Am. The name suggested the reverse of a Baked Alaska.
Sure, when you use hundreds of watts over several minutes.
The decay over distance should be roughly exponential: every x millimeters, you're left with only half of the radiation. Given the radiation caused by a cellphone in your pocket, how many microns of water do you need to attenuate the intensity to a non-mutagenic level?
WiFi typically uses frequencies that resonate with water, which limits its range due to H2O vapor in the atmosphere. These frequencies are used because they're not licensed for other purposes and because this range limitation allows more WiFi to more easily coexist in urban areas.
Would this be bad or good from a (hypothetical) carcinogenic standpoint? Since we are mostly water would this mean our interior below say the first few layers of skin are fairly effectively shielded from WiFi radiation?
So what is the proposed mechanism by which microwave energy is supposed to heat DNA enough to damage it?