Hi!
In my computer science in engineering master’s degree, I recently had the course “bioelectromagnetics”, or in short BEM. BEM deals with the interaction of electromagnetic fields with biological tissue.
The course went well in terms of the grade, and since the topic is exotic, I thought, maybe you are interested in what it’s about! In the following you see one of my glossaries - usually I write them a few days before the exam. In the process of writing the glossary, I parse all the knowledge from the lecture contents and group exercises through my brain, which helps me to reflect the course content. The glossary is definitely not meant to explain everything! But it maybe provides some idea in what topics we dived in. If you got intrigued, then you can read the book “Bioimpedance and Bioelectricity Basics” by Sverre Grimnes and Ørjan G Martinsen. A lot of our lecture content is based on it.
A short introduction #
In the BEM course, we divided the topics mostly by frequency of the electromagnetic waves:
Frequency
At frequencies below 1MHz, we modelled biological tissue with electrical circuits - meaning that effects can be described best with circuits of simple resistors and capacitors. Between 1MHz and 10Thz, we modelled the effects using planar EM waves. These are much more complicated - major effects are the power loss density along the EM wave traveling through the body that results in heat, as well as polarization, reflection and refraction. Between 10 THz and 2 PHz (being $2 \cdot 10^{15}$ Hz), we dealt with electromagnetic effects as being rays. The interval also includes green light at a frequency of around 600 THz. This frequency range is not that interesting since the only effect is heat dissipation. In the last frequency range – above 2 PHz – we treat EM waves as photons. The 2 PHz frequency marks the transition between non-ionizing and ionizing radiation: Above 2 PHz, the energy of light / EM waves is enough knock electrons off hydrogen atoms, which can damage DNA and potentially cause cancer.
Size
We both took a look at microscopic level (being) single biological cells and also macroscopic objects like the heart or the human as a whole.
Applications
Throughout the course we looked at a lot of different applications, for example electric cardiography, electroencephalography (EEG), magnetic resonance imaging, tasers and their health impacts and more applications.
I am interested in your thoughts! - Reply with a simple Email
Have a nice day,
Carl