Radiation research

Phantom’s calls help radiation research

A Swinburne laboratory is hardly the place you would expect to come across a phantom called Sam, much less one filled with ‘goop’. But Sam has a special place at the Australian Centre for Radiofrequency Bioeffects Research (ACRBR).

SAM is in fact a Standard Anthropomorphic Mannequin – a dummy shaped like the upper body of a human (the phantom) and filled with fluid that simulates human tissue (the goop).

Researchers use SAM to measure and monitor the absorption of radiofrequency (RF) energy in humans. A mobile phone is attached to the mannequin’s head, and a robotic probe can then be inserted into the fuild at any one of about 15,000 locations in SAM’s body to see the impact of mobile phone radiation on different parts of the body.

SAM – or more specifically the robotic probe that does the measuring – is one of many highly sophisticated devices in the ACRBR laboratory, which is spread across two locations on Swinburne’s campus. The lab opened in July 2007, in partnership with Telstra Corporation, and contains much of the equipment once housed in Telstra’s original research lab in Melbourne.

Professor Andrew Wood said the laboratory represents a unique cooperative opportunity for Swinburne and Telstra, enabling them to continue research into the impact of RF radiation in humans.

A jewel in the crown of the lab is the anechoic, or echo-less, chamber, which – despite its name – is not for sound.

“It’s to do with electronmagnetic energy,” Wood said. “It absorbs everything and doesn’t let any of the energy out and also doesn’t let in any energy from outside. We can do all sorts of things in there and it doesn’t affect people’s mobile phones, and nothing comes in that would affect measurements.”

The lab also includes a ‘Ferris wheel’, but it is too small for humans to ride. This device, which Wood said resembles the London Eye, is a way of exposing laboratory mice to carefully controlled levels of radiofrequency radiation to look for biological effects.