The biological effects on living organisms can be categorised into those relating to single-celled organisms such as the prokaryotes, lower eukaryotes, tissue cultures, and animals. Publications relating to induced effects in higher organisms and animals actually represent the bulk of the literature. Annual publications from Russia, Ukraine and former Eastern Bloc countries number in the hundreds.

Growth rate change was the first biological effect observed in the late 1960s when Webb and Dodds (Webb & Dodds D 1968) described an inhibition of growth in the bacterium Escherichia coli (E. coli) at 138 GHz. In 1969, the same group reported that growth rate could be either be enhanced by (up to 50%) or suppressed (50%) by exposure to different frequencies (Webb & Booth 1969). The switch from growth inhibition to enhancement occurred over a 2 - 3 GHz frequency range and represented the first report of a "resonance" or window effect.

Belyaev (Belyaev et al) describes extremely low power density effects (10-19 W cm-2) on genome conformation. Speculatively, these may indicate that mm-wave radiation could be deployed from orbit to modify genome conformation state. However, these power densities are not measurable and are of comparable intensity to background black body noise levels. Belyaev et al introduces the concept of selection rules e.g. helicity to account for the low-intensity interaction.

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