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It sounds like a power to be boasted of by the X-Men, but researchers say humans might have the ability to pick up on Earth’s magnetic field.
Many animals, from pigeons to turtles, use it to navigate, while research has shown cattle prefer to align themselves with the field when standing in, well, a field. Even dogs make use of it – albeit when defecating.
But while debates continue about the mechanisms behind such phenomena, it has remained unclear whether humans also have the power of magnetoreception. Now scientists say there are signs that we do.
“We have not as a species lost the magnetic sensory system that our ancestors [millions of years ago] had,” said Prof Joseph Kirschvink, leader of the research from the California Institute of Technology. “We are part of Earth’s magnetic biosphere.”
Writing in the journal eNeuro, Kirschvink and colleagues in the US and Japan describe how they made their discovery after building a six-sided cage, the walls of which were made of aluminium to shield the setup from electromagnetic interference. These walls also contained coils through which currents were passed to produce magnetic fields of about the same strength as Earth’s.
Read more here. (The Guardian UK)
Many animals, from pigeons to turtles, use it to navigate, while research has shown cattle prefer to align themselves with the field when standing in, well, a field. Even dogs make use of it – albeit when defecating.
But while debates continue about the mechanisms behind such phenomena, it has remained unclear whether humans also have the power of magnetoreception. Now scientists say there are signs that we do.
“We have not as a species lost the magnetic sensory system that our ancestors [millions of years ago] had,” said Prof Joseph Kirschvink, leader of the research from the California Institute of Technology. “We are part of Earth’s magnetic biosphere.”
Writing in the journal eNeuro, Kirschvink and colleagues in the US and Japan describe how they made their discovery after building a six-sided cage, the walls of which were made of aluminium to shield the setup from electromagnetic interference. These walls also contained coils through which currents were passed to produce magnetic fields of about the same strength as Earth’s.
Read more here. (The Guardian UK)
