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A common affliction

Are frequent mobile users more likely to suffer from brain tumours? Yes, say scientists. No, say scientists.

But you can't blame the scientists. Studies into whether television is causing us to dumb down provide clearer answers. You just have to look more closely at who commissioned the study. If it was SAT 1 or RTL, the study will be reassuring, claiming  that pictures convey a thousand times more to the human brain than words. If it was the Federation of Newspaper Publishers, the study will state categorically that a torrent of images suppresses the analytical side of the brain.

The case of the potentially damaging effects of mobile phone radiation on our health is somewhat trickier. Following extensive research conducted over a number of years, 21 scientists from around the world published their findings in May. The results are so contradictory that anyone can cherry-pick the bits they choose to believe. At first glance, it appears that the use of mobile phones can even offer protection against malignant and benign cancers. If you look more closely, however, frequent mobile users have an above-average risk of developing cancer of the temporal lobe, which is close to the ear. But the study was based on outdated mobile phones which emit more radiation than current models. If you want to find out more, go to: www.sueddeutsche.de/interphone

If the science is inconclusive, we have to appeal to common sense. It, however, is more fearful for our sanity. It's a common affliction: every time we have a free moment we dial a number from our phonebook - friends, lovers, acquaintances - and chat away mindlessly about football, barbecues and get-togethers. And that's fine. People are interested in people and like to talk to each other.

Too bad we haven't got the mobile number for Steve Jones, the British geneticist who conducted research into the Y chromosome, which is what makes a man a man. Or even better the celestial private number of Louise Bourgeois, the brilliant artist who, although recently passed away, would have so much to tell us about the life of a woman. Which leaves us incessantly phoning, going round and round in our insignificant little social circles, sticking to what and who we know, without a breath of fresh air from those inspirational figures whose numbers we don't have saved in our phonebooks.

You can't even just give me a call.

Ludwig Hasler