I have these vivid memories of my parents watching tv when I was a child and there being very serious news segments about how the radiation from cell phones was going to fry our brains and our butts (wherever you kept the phone close to you for extended periods of time). These news segments were occasionally interrupted by commercials for lead-filled hats or lead-filled underwear that were designed to block such radiation from frying such brains and butts.

Mindful as I am that I have a phone near my body for very extended periods of time, my ears have often perked up when seeing a study about the ill-effects of radiation from mobile devices. Much to my surprise, though, we are still here several decades later without having fried our brains or butts.

Apparently, though, the trees are not doing as well. This study in Germany looked at 120 trees across two different cities and claims to have found clear evidence that trees near cell phone towers are being damaged by the electromagnetic radiation such towers produce. Thankfully, we humans are a much thicker skin than trees.