De Pomerai and colleagues have conducted a series of experiments using the worm C. elegans. In this study they exposed worm larvae to RF radiation at 1000MHz for 20 hours, at a SAR of 0.001W/kg. The exposed worms were compared to heat-shocked controls (incubated at 28°C), baseline controls (incubated at 15°), and negative controls (placed in the exposure box with the power switched off). The negative controls and the RF-exposed groups were incubated at 25°C. The larvae grew 150% larger than the starting size at 15°, 175% larger at 20°C, and 222% larger at 25°C, but only 200% larger at 28°C. Microwave exposure had an independent effect, increasing growth by about 10% compared with the negative controls. This was statistically significant. The temperature of the RF-exposed larvae and the negative controls was checked and found to be similar.

The RF-exposed worms were also compared to the negative controls and the heat-shocked controls in another experiment where the groups were cultured for a further 20 hours or more at 25°C under identical conditions. The proportion of worms maturing into egg-bearing adults was increased by 28-40% compared with the negative control worms. The heat-shocked worms did not produce eggs at all.

The authors consider that their results suggest that RF radiation leads to increases in growth and maturation in the exposed worms and that the results are not likely to be due to heating effects. In fact, heating the larvae to 28°C led to less growth than at 25°C, and maturation was likewise quite different. The authors offer a number of possible explanations for the observed effects in their paper.