We have the phenomenon that we now have very sensible measurement instruments usable to detect trace amounts of materials, or miniscule changes in metabolisms.

We have the phenomenon that we now have very sensible measurement instruments usable to detect trace amounts of materials, or miniscule changes in metabolisms. This enables much new research, but also leads to essentially irrelevant news like cocaine in tap water everywhere, or results like this one you linked: Of course the insects absorbed the microwave radiation, as almost every living tissue does. The interesting research question, though, is: Does the radiation influence actual behaviour, or do actual illnesses emerge due to exposure? We also have a lot of this in research about humans. One thing that often pops up here on HN is blue light and sleep: We can reliably show that blue light exposure before sleep affects serotonine levels in humans, but we mostly have a hard time showing effects on actual sleep. (I'm not interested in derailing the thread here, just an example)