Radio Frequency (RF) & Wireless Design

I came across this article about a cellular antenna MIT RESEARCH project:

https://news.mit.edu/2022/cell-rover-exploring-augmenting-inner-world-cell-0922

I found that this project is bizarre for so many reasons and i am wondering if its a misnomer to call it an antenna simply to grab attention and perhaps should be called a transducer since:

oocyte cells size: "At a diameter of 100 to 110 μm, the oocyte gradually achieves the capacity to undergo meiotic maturation, which includes a series of modulations of organelles and inclusions that are necessary for the oocyte to achieve developmental competence."

100um = 0.100mm

"The antenna developed by Sarkar’s team is much smaller than a cell. In fact, in the team’s research with oocyte cells, the antenna represented less than .05 percent of the cell volume, putting it well below a size that would intrude upon and damage the cell."

assuming a spherical geometry volume : V = 4/3 * pi * r^3 => 5.24*10^-4 cubic millimeters

0.05 percent = 0.0005 of volume

5.24*10^-4 * 0.0005 = 0.262^-6 cubic millimeters

taking the cube root of 0.262^-6 => 0.0064 mm per side of cube = 6.4um per side

assuming that a L = 1/2 wavelength (two quarter wavelength elements) antenna is equal to a side of the cube,

c / 2*L = f => c / 2*6.4um = 300E6 / 12.8E-6 = 46,883,586,213.4 Hertz = 46.884 GHz

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extremely_high_frequency

which is about where the spectral absorption of water is :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attenuation

Compared to lower bands, radio waves in this band have high atmospheric attenuation: they are absorbed by the ga...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attenuation

which is counter-productive since they "At the same time, increasing the frequency in order to reduce that ratio and the size of the antenna is counterproductive because high frequencies produce heat damaging to living tissue."

since most cells and other body structures are composed of water; it sounds more of a water boiler.

Moreover,

"The antenna developed by the Media Lab researchers converts electromagnetic waves into acoustic waves, whose wavelengths are five orders of magnitude smaller — representing the velocity of sound divided by the wave frequency — than those of the electromagnetic waves."

This is comparing apples to oranges since the wavelength for sounds is NOT the same as the wavelength for electromagnetic waves [ c != s ]

The wavelength (using c) is orders of magnitude LARGER not smaller at lower frequencies !!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_spectrum

"When a magnetic field is applied to the antenna, powering and activating it, magnetic domains within the magnetostrictive material align to the field, creating strain in the material, the way metal bits woven into a piece of cloth could react to a strong magnet, causing the cloth to contort."

This is closer to a piezo power converter that which when contorted will generate electrical power, but simply the antenna is really a magnetic pickup:

Piezoelectric sensor - Wikipedia

"the Cell Rover, with its mini antenna, could carry out functions ranging all the way to intracellular computing and information processing for autonomous exploration and modulation of the cell."

When an alternating magnetic field is applied to the antenna, the varying strain and stress (pressure) produced in the material is what creates the acoustic waves in the antenna,

Well i guess if you can consider a cellular defibrillator on a cellular level as a method of communicating to the cell !! ;-)

But i think most of this is pushing the needle off the Bullshit scale !!

Bear in mind that like a RFID tag, the 'energize' method of 'receiving' is dependent on the size and materials of the inductive and magnetic properties of the antenna. So given is size, the amount of energy would be so infinitesimally small that the mitochondria would have more energy !

So i don't have much hope for this as a technology, and considering that they have been working on this for over 5 decades with no real Proof-of-Concept (PoC) i think that this is just another university science project that is a government black hole for money.