| Sumario: | The article observes that the mobile telephone is simultaneously the most successful digital device on the planet and the origin of myths and scare stories. Mobile phones are ubiquitous and indispensable, yet they have also given rise to numerous safety fears. But it is, in fact, quite normal for successful technologies to cause concern when they are first introduced. In the 19th century, people worried that telegraph wires were affecting the weather, or were a form of black magic. Trains were thought to cause nervous disorders. More recently, people have worried about the health effects of overhead power lines, microwave ovens and radiation from computer monitors--though years of research have failed to find evidence of harm. The reaction to mobile phones is merely the latest example of a familiar pattern. As new technologies emerge and the pattern repeats itself, two things are worth bearing in mind. The first is that even when a technology is perfectly safe, the nature of scientific proof makes it impossible to verify. The second point is that all technologies have both good and bad uses.
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