 Hi everyone, Brian Dumas here, digital content creator at IBM, and welcome to the Thomas J. Watson Research Center here in New York. This building has so much history and has been home to some of IBM's most important inventions which is why it's needless to say we do a lot of science here, which brings me to why I'm joining you. I'm proud to introduce a new series we'll be doing called Mythbusting, Science, Not Fiction. We'll be speaking to some of IBM's brightest minds and have them tell you why those theories and conspiracies you've been seeing on the internet and social media are or are not correct. We'll also talk about what we're up to at IBM and hopefully leave you a little bit smarter, a little bit more informed. For our first episode I spoke with Kimberly Green-Starks, who's IBM's global lead for infrastructure technology and planning, and she also leads up our university programs. She's an incredibly smart woman with over 70 patents to her name in areas such as data analytics and mobile technology. And she also lives in Nashville, Tennessee and was very close to the attack on the AT&T building a few months ago. So who better to come on and speak to us about some of the myths around 5G than someone as smart as Kimberly Green-Starks? Kimberly, thank you for joining us. How are you doing today? I'm great, Brian. How about you? I'm doing fantastic. It's an honor to have you join us and really thankful that you made some time for us. So before we get into the myths, I guess let's talk to the people at home about what is 5G? 5G is the latest iteration of mobile communication technology and it builds upon 4G. 5G or 5th generation cellular wireless networks are powered by technology referred to as millimeter wave. So I've been reading some things. I guess 3G was the first technology that allowed us to send media via SMS. 4G kind of got us to a place where we could stream content and watch YouTube and games on our phones. What would we be able to do from a user standpoint with 5G that we can't do now? So the promise of 5G is pretty big. Have you ever been to a sporting event or a concert and wanted to post the selfie to your favorite social media outlet or send a text message to your friends to make them jealous about where you are and not been able to do that? You get a failed connection or message not sent. That's because in crowded places and events, congested cellular networks occur and make it harder for you to enjoy your devices. So 5G networks promise faster speeds, higher bandwidth and lower latency in communications between devices and servers over 4G networks. Devices on these networks will be able to give everyone a chance to post that selfie. And so thank you for that background. That's important, you know, level setting just to make sure that everyone understands what really is going on out here. And so that brings me to my next point. Some of these myths that we've been hearing. I know you live in Nashville and so you were as close as any IBM or to the unfortunate attack that happened downtown at the H&T building. I know the guy, there was there was some talk that the gentleman who was who perpetrated that attack was a conspiracy theorist and believed that 5G was harmful to people when people are misinformed and they they act on that misinformation, dangerous things can happen. And so let's let's let's inform the people at home, right? You talked about that millipede wave technology. I've seen some information online. There's one gentleman saying that 5G technology can go through walls and it could maybe, you know, give you adverse health effects and transmit diseases. Tell us why that's not the case. So for the for the people who say that 5G causes headaches, to cause a headache would require prolonged exposure to frequencies in the range of thousands more than the 5G network which operates around the range of a transistor radio from the old school from our grandparents transistor radio. It's just not possible that 5G in itself could be causing your headache. Or for those who say that 5G has caused the coronavirus. Well, the coronavirus is present in every continent on earth. And many of many of the countries where 5G has shown its its ugly head in the pandemic don't even have 5G technology rollout underway. So that can't be possible. Let's see. This is why we need smart people like you to come on and tell us what's really going on, right? Like how can something that has the the power of a transistor radio, you know, give us adverse health effects? We've been having transistors in our homes for over 60 years now, you know, and we've been okay. So, you know, that clarity, that perspective is important. And to your point about 5G and coronavirus, right? Like how can how can the technology transmitting disease in an area where the technology doesn't even exist? You know, that's right. So that perspective is important. Thank you for for helping us understand a little bit more. And so is there anything else you want to share with the folks at home before we before we wrap? Be safe out there, everyone, and embrace technology. Embrace technology. That's a great a great parting statement. And that's why we're doing this. We want to make people more informed, a little bit smarter, and let them know how technology is working in real ways to make impactful differences in people's lives. So thank you for being on the right side of that fight and looking forward to seeing more great things from you and the rest of IBM in the coming coming months. Thank you, Brian. Take care. Well, thank you so much, Kimberly, for making time for us. This has been a great conversation, very insightful, very informative. We hope you folks at home learn something as well. We'll be doing more of these in the future, so please subscribe to the channel if you haven't already, and be sure to share this with your friends and family and anyone else who you think will appreciate facts. Until next time, take care.