In laboratory studies on animals, Marino and co-workers showed that exposure to man-made electromagnetic energy present in the human environment caused changes in the neurological, endocrinological, and immunological systems of the animals, and affected growth and survival.

Their proposed biological explanation for the broad range of observed effects was that the applied electromagnetic energy activated the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axes in the exposed animal, a process known to cause diverse consequences in the body. Marino reasoned that because animal and human physiology were similar, the occurrence of the biological effects in animals indicated that uncontrolled human exposure to man-made electromagnetic energy in the environment was a health risk, and that uncontrolled and unvetted exposure contributed to the occurrence of disease.

In human and animal studies of the effects of powerline and cellphone electromagnetic energy on brain electrical activity, Marino established that the energy was detected by nerve endings in the skin, and that information concerning the presence of the energy was transmitted to the brain stem and relayed to higher centers in the brain.

Marino modeled detection of the energy as a form of sensory transduction, and he described and validated two biophysical processes by which the energy could be detected. Low-frequency energy, such as that from powerlines, directly exerts forces on the gates of ion channels in the neuronal membrane, allowing entry of external ions into the cell, thereby initiating information-containing signals in the nerve that propagate to the brain.

Detection of high-frequency energy such as that from cellphones is mediated by heat activation of temperature-sensitive sodium channels that can detect changes at least as small as 0.01°C. The process results in the propagation of information-bearing signals to the brain.