As I understand it, the only real difference between radio, visible light, x-ray and everything in between is its wavelength. For instancew, radio has a very long wavelength, x-ray very short, visible in the middle somewhere. This means that radio can penetrate stuff (matter?) more effectively, among other things.
Radio waves are (essentially?) harmless, but shorter wavelengths are famously more dangerous, from sunburn all the way to straight up cancer and so forth. Why is that?
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Energy of a photon depends on frequency (E=hf, h being planck’s constant)
Higher frequencies have shorter wavelengths (c=λf, c being the speed of light and lambda being wavelength)
Therefore, we also have E=hc/λ
When a wavelength is short enough (frequency is high enough), the individual photon has enough energy to break chemical bonds and knock electrons off of atoms. This is called ionizing radiation because it has enough energy to ionize. This is what makes certain wavelengths of EM radiation dangerous (starting around UVB and up, UVA, visible light, infrared, microwaves, and radio are all perfectly safe, the worst they can do is burn you if the intensity (number of photons) is high enough.
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