Fruit fly scanning electron micrograph
Posted on 06/21/2011 11:51:14 AM PDT by decimon
Fruit fly scanning electron micrograph
A light-sensitive protein in the human eye has been shown to act as a "compass" in a magnetic field, when it is present in flies' eyes.
The study in Nature Communications showed that without their natural "magnetoreception" protein, the flies did not respond to a magnetic field - but replacing the protein with the human version restored the ability.
Despite much controversy, no conclusive evidence exists that humans can sense the Earth's magnetic field, and the find may revive interest in the idea.
Although humans, like migratory birds, are known to have cryptochrome in their eyes, the idea of human magnetoreception has remained largely unexplored since pioneering experiments by Robin Baker of the University of Manchester in the 1980s.
Dr Baker used a long series of experiments on thousands of volunteers that suggested humans could indirectly sense magnetic fields, though he never definitively identified the mechanism. In subsequent years, several groups attempted to repeat those experiments, claiming opposing results.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
Eye fly ping.
No doubt this is the mechanism that triggers that “I’m aimed the wrong way” feeling when you climb into the wrong bed.
Have map, will travel.
No wonder my eyes bugged out when I put magnets on my eyelids!
Experimentation is the key to innovation...you just never know...
If human eyes responded to a weak field like Earth’s we would see the effect a millionfold when a human gets an MRI.
>>No doubt this is the mechanism that triggers that “I’m aimed the wrong way” feeling when you climb into the wrong bed.
<<
Which is then followed by that “who is this person next to me?” feeling...
You must have been Navy. ;-)
Not necessarily. Who is to say the sense is directly related to (pardon the pun) magnitude? We sense certain bands of light and sound spectra, why not be sensitive to only a sliver of potential magnetic fields?
I was thinking the same thing. Seems some form of leukemia and high-energy magnetic fields may be related, but vision?
Hmm.
Something like that.
We sense slices of the frequency domain, but not amplitude, usually. Going from candlelight to staring at the Sun is a continuum, for instance, without intensities we can’t see. Likewise from heartbeats to Metallica, there is not a loudness interval where we can’t hear.
In the frequency domain, there are “colors” we can’t see, but what we can see is a continuum also, there is not a spot near “orange” (595 nm) that we are blind to, but we can’t see infrared (950 nm) or UV (230 nm).
The Earth mag field is a DC field, as is the MRI scanner field, same “color”. If you get a molecule to align in a weak field it will align in a stronger field.
Maybe the effect is saturated at high fields, say for example that you get increasing effect up to six times Earth mag field, but after that it runs out of response (no additional response from 6x to a million x), we’d expect to see increasing response up to the saturation point, so when you get in the scanner, you’d say Hey! I see things differently! but it would be the same different as though you had been in a field 6x times stronger.
I suppose you could get a neodymium-boron magnet (plenty strong) and see if your eyes responded. I’ve been around lots of accelerator magnets and have noticed nothing except wiped credit cards.
Human experience with MRIs - if it was studied more, may indicate that the magnetic reception of this protein is in fact present in humans, though weakly and in varying degrees - greatly less in some, greater in others.
In an MRI machine, it’s magnetic affects are (1) at a different wavelength than earth’s magnetic field, and (2) are the expression of magnetic fields for which the polarity is specific to the MRI machine and the MRI application and can vary during the application and (3) are magnetic fields that can be up 25,000 times as strong as earth’s.
So, if some human individuals do have a higher receptivity to magnetic fields they might, possibly, experience a greater degree of discomfort and/or disorientation while under an MRI procedure (and not for reasons of claustrophobia) than might human individuals with less sensitivity/receptivity to magnetic fields.
I have known people in my life, myself included, who can always point ourselves in a northerly direction, sun-up or sun-down, cloudy day or cloudy night. Is it entirely impossible that humans have NOT retained some use of this chemical that they posses, a chemical that demonstrates receptivity to magnetic fields?. Why would humans posses the chemical and why in our eyes? It makes more sense that it once had some greater use than does the idea that it had none.
Earth’s field and the MRI field are exactly the same wavelength. Plus the MRI field does not vary (there is too much energy stored in the field to “wiggle” it).
I think we need to experiment with smaller magnets and a large population. Some of your ideas are worth exploring.
Earth’s field at the strongest is 60 microteslas, and an MRI is 3 Teslas, for a ratio of 50,000. It would be much easier to experiment with smaller fields.
One of the places I worked recently has a set of Helmholtz coils big enough to fit a chair in, I can create a mag field there or even cancel Earth’s, if I can get volunteers. I’d look for changes in the ability to do some simple task, and I’ll need to figure a way to quantify disorientation. Volunteers are hard to come by, most of my friends won’t volunteer for anything any more.
The usefulness of this finding is anyone’s gauss...
It could be useful to pole dancers.
I saw the picture and the first thing that came to my mind is “help me, help me”.
I have known people in my life, myself included, who can always point ourselves in a northerly direction,....
***
I am curious. Are all of these direction finders men? I am a woman, I have no sense of direction, and I know very few women who are not like me in that regard.
I remember seeing something about 20 years ago about an experiment. In England, I think. The subjects were blindfolded and driven about on a bus. Nearly all of the men and none of the women, while still blindfolded, could proclaim their final orientation at the end of the ride.
My monitor hasn't looked right since I de-gaussed it. They told me that's cuz it's an LCD. Who knew?
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