12 December 2009 | NewScientist | 27

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In addition, different people hold their phone at different angles and distances from their head while talking. This can also result in a large variation in RF exposure that could not be taken into account in the study.

Interphone’s results must also be seen in the light of what is already known about the effects of RF on cells. All rigorous reviews of the scientific literature have concluded that exposure to RF fields is not associated with an increased risk of cancer.

Nor has any mechanism been found by which RF exposure from mobile phones could cause cancer. RF fields do not have enough energy to break chemical bonds in DNA, so they simply cannot cause the mutations required to initiate cancer. Further, from a theoretical analysis of all possible ways that RF fields could act on cells and tissues, it does not seem possible that RF exposures at levels below the international limits can cause adverse health consequences.

So what are we to conclude? Interphone should be considered a detailed preliminary study that has identified key methodological limitations which need to be addressed in subsequent studies, for example not relying on people’s memories but tracking actual cellphone use in a large group of people over many years.

Such studies are under way, but they take time. In the meantime public-health policy should remain as recommended by the WHO. Over 50 countries have adopted international standards that limit RF exposure from cellphones. As far as we can be reasonably sure, these guidelines are more than sufficient to protect us. ■

Michael Repacholi is a visiting professor

of electronic engineering at the

Sapienza University of Rome, Italy.

He coordinated the International

EMF Project at the World Health

Organization for 11 years and was at

the WHO when Interphone was set up

Tell me about the highlights of the Royal

Society’s 350th anniversary celebrations.

The centrepiece will be a summer exhibition at

the Southbank Centre in London. We normally

have the summer exhibition at our premises but

we are raising our game in the hope of attracting

a broader attendance. But the core of our work

is science; we’re going to have a series of

conferences about important problems

highlighted by our fellows – extraterrestrial life,

ageing, the evolution of culture, and so on.

You also have a book coming out.

Yes, early in the new year, edited by Bill Bryson.

It’s on the general theme of science and its

practical implications. A variety of people have

each written a chapter: some scientists, some

novelists, some historians – about 20 in all.

The past achievements of the society and its

fellows are many and varied, but do you have

a personal favourite?

Charles Darwin . I suppose as a physical scientist

I ought to have chosen Newton. He would

have won hands down in an IQ test, but if you

ask who was the most attractive personality

then Darwin is the one you’d wish to meet.

Newton was solitary and reclusive, even vain

and vindictive in his later years when he was

president of the society.

How do you see the Royal Society’s role in the

modern world?

To speak up for science, and to emphasise the

importance of science to the UK. We are a country

with a strong tradition in science and we want

to stay that way. We also want to address, with

the best expertise we can muster, the key

problems facing the world. Young people are

growing up in a world ever more influenced by

science, and the problems are going to have to

be tackled globally: clean energy, feeding the

world, dealing with pandemics. All those are areas

where scientists need to engage with the public

and politicians to ensure that science is developed

wisely and used optimally.

One minute with...

Martin Rees

Do you get the sense that people listen?

We hope so. We’ve been gratified by the press

coverage for our most recent reports, on

geoengineering and food supplies. But it is very

important that as well as getting through to the

general public via the press, we ensure that our

reports get on the right desks in government; it’s

important that decisions are influenced by the

best available science. We can help to gather

together groups of experts who can provide the

best, most reliable input into political decisions

that have a scientific dimension.

How does one become an FRS ?

Fellows are selected, almost always, on the basis

of individual research achievement. They are

people who have made distinctive, original

contributions to science.

Do you get to do science any more?

Rather less than I used to. But I’m lucky to be in

a science – astronomy – that was very exciting

when I started and is just as exciting now.

Interview by Graham Lawton

As the Royal Society, the world’s oldest academy of sciences, enters its 350th year, its president is looking to the future

SC

AN

PIX

PROFILE

Martin Rees has been president of the Royal

Society since December 2005. He is also

Astronomer Royal, Master of Trinity College,

Cambridge, and a member of the House of Lords