• Question: do technology such as T.V computers ect.. damage your brain cells?

    Asked by watery to Damien, Rachael, Simon, Suzi, Tim on 16 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Tim Fosker

      Tim Fosker answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      Hi @watery

      There is quite a lot of debate about this. There is evidence that watching TV slows down development for learning other things, but that is likely to depend on what you watch on TV. There doesn’t seem to be any good evidence that brain cells are actually harmed from TV or computer use. This is a good thing, because most scientists use computers all of the time and it would be terrible if we were actually killing off our brain cells while we were trying to work.

    • Photo: Suzi Gage

      Suzi Gage answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      Hi @watery
      Great question.
      I’m afraid I don’t know the answer, as far as I know no-one is sure yet, but it is being investigated all the time. Sometimes things are invented and end up in public circulation before we realise they are bad. A product called Asbestos used to be used in buildings, but it turned out that when it was in dust form, it was really bad for people. Scientists called epidemiologists (like me!!) look for patterns of illness and see if they’re linked to certain things in the world, to try and work out whether that thing might be harmful. In the case of asbestos biochemists could then look to see if it could be harmful.

      If it was thought that TV or computers were harmful to brain cells, neuroscientists could do work to find out if this was the case.

      Sorry that’s not a definitive answer, but I hope it’s interesting 🙂

    • Photo: Damien Hall

      Damien Hall answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      I think there is a certain amount of evidence that mobile ‘phones MAY SOMETIMES contribute to cancer. That’s why I have been told not to keep mine in my hip-pocket (I’m a man…), and so I keep it in my shirt pocket instead! But I don’t think anyone is really sure about this kind of thing either.

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