Scientists Observe Live Cells Responding To Magnetic Fields For First Time (newatlas.com) 58
An anonymous reader quotes a report from New Atlas: One of the most remarkable "sixth" senses in the animal kingdom is magnetoreception -- the ability to detect magnetic fields -- but exactly how it works remains a mystery. Now, researchers in Japan may have found a crucial piece of the puzzle, making the first observations of live, unaltered cells responding to magnetic fields. Many animals are known to navigate by sensing the Earth's magnetic field, including birds, bats, eels, whales and, according to some studies, perhaps even humans. However, the exact mechanism at play in vertebrates isn't well understood. One hypothesis suggests it's the result of a symbiotic relationship between the animals and magnetic field-sensing bacteria. But the leading hypothesis involves chemical reactions induced in cells through what's called the radical pair mechanism.
Essentially, if certain molecules are excited by light, electrons can jump between them to their neighbors. That can create pairs of molecules with a single electron each, known as a radical pair. If the electrons in those molecules have matching spin states, they will undergo chemical reactions slowly, and if they're opposites the reactions occur faster. Since magnetic fields can influence electron spin states, they could induce chemical reactions that change an animals' behavior. In the living cells of animals with magnetoreception, proteins called cryptochromes are thought to be the molecules that undergo this radical pair mechanism. And now, researchers at the University of Tokyo have observed cryptochromes responding to magnetic fields for the first time. The research was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Essentially, if certain molecules are excited by light, electrons can jump between them to their neighbors. That can create pairs of molecules with a single electron each, known as a radical pair. If the electrons in those molecules have matching spin states, they will undergo chemical reactions slowly, and if they're opposites the reactions occur faster. Since magnetic fields can influence electron spin states, they could induce chemical reactions that change an animals' behavior. In the living cells of animals with magnetoreception, proteins called cryptochromes are thought to be the molecules that undergo this radical pair mechanism. And now, researchers at the University of Tokyo have observed cryptochromes responding to magnetic fields for the first time. The research was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
That explains it! (Score:4, Funny)
> magnetic fields can ... change an animals' behavior.
Now I know what went wrong with to the human race.... all those years sitting behind a 25" CRT reading Slashdot and compiling kernels surely must have altered most of our cells!
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On second thought, it might also explain why cats like computers and dogs chew on cables... Magnetism definitely is the toxoplasma of human civilisation and makes us invent and adopt a new conspiracy theory every semester, sometimes urging us to occupy the Capitol or deny vaccination.
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On second thought, it might also explain why cats like computers and dogs chew on cables...
They chew on cables whether they're on or not. They must just like chewing on them because of the feel, or even the taste of something in the plastic. Rodents will likewise chew up wiring on parked vehicles.
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Rodents will likewise chew up wiring on parked vehicles.
This is actually a major problem in my town. Packrats home in on cars parked overnight in the open and will chew out whole wiring systems to build their nests. It's as major and expensive a problem here in the boonies as catalytic muffler theft in the big city.
hmmm... (Score:2)
so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.
Humans have cryptochromes in their eyes (Score:3)
it is believed to be part of the circadian cycle.
Maybe in 2077 we can get magnetic vision.
It will let us see the radioactive ferro-wasps without using light that would attract the snake-wolves.
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Haha if there was a way to make money off it, I am sure there'd be people peddling "directional sleep aids" to help you sleep aligned with the magnetic field.
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I mean they sell crystal that women are to shove up their vaginas and claim that beyond the obvious there are also some benefits or realigning some charka or some similar pseudo-scientific stuff, and people actually spend money on that, why not also magnets?
There's also been studies on sleep and magnetism like this one: https://academic.oup.com/aje/a... [oup.com]
Though I can't speak to their scientific diligence, because I haven't read
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Seriously though, that study is from 2004 and though it finds no link between magnetic fields and sleep, it conflicts with previous ones which did (although it also differed in that the subjects were sleeping at home rather than in a laboratory which has been shown to have an effect, itself probably larger than any caused by a magnetic field).
A more recent study from 2015 did however find "there was a strong
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Oh, there are.
Magnitico mattress pads.
https://magneticosleep.com/?gc... [magneticosleep.com]
Western Way Institute
https://www.newswire.com/break... [newswire.com]
The V Dome Delta is a set of two generators housed in 4-inch plastic cubes with a modern art look. When separated these two generators create a relaxing field around the bed
Earth Pulse - (site may host spyware)
https://earthpulse.net/magneti... [earthpulse.net]
The EarthPulse Sleep on Command sleep machine system is the world’s first age-reversal system. By tuning cells to promote better oxygen me
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Not only does it suck to high-heaven to have a iron-bestinged flying nightmare eating my damn carport, they're god damned terrifying!
Cattle and Deer also sense North (Score:3)
https://www.scientificamerican... [scientificamerican.com]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/sci... [bbc.co.uk]
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" It seems they are also able to sense the earth's magnetic fields and this triggers some sort of behavior."
Pigeons sens them as well but they prefer to fly over the highways going in the same direction, it's apparently easier.
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So do dogs, who prefer to align themselves in a north/south direction when pooping. Since originally reading this I have observed the same behavior in two of our four dogs.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/s... [pbs.org]
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Well then two of my dogs prefer pooping while aligned with north/south streets than east/west aligned streets. It still a difference that I find intriguing.
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the real research (Score:2)
I'm not surprised (Score:3)
My live cells also respond to Oxygene and Equinoxe as well.
Hardware and software (Score:4, Interesting)
I just tried to fish out the information from he Internet, but could not find it, so forgive me if memory misleads...
Years ago I read about an experiment inspired by that very topic (birds sensing the magnetic field).
The scholar, from Germany if memory serves, wondered what would happen if humans get a constant input where the magnetic north is. So he attached a belt with vibrating pads - the pad closest to north would vibrate. He wore it for a long time if I remember right. He reported that he found it way easier to navigate unknown territories. His general since of direction (and distance!) improved drastically. It seemed that the human mind can make good use of such sensory input, if present.
Some have wondered if, at some point in our evolutionary past, this ability was present. And, therefore, even if the hardware is no longer functioning, the software can still make sense and utilize the input. The experiment seems to point that it is so.
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It seemed that the human mind can make good use of such sensory input, if present.
All I can say is I've always had a great sense of direction, no matter where I'm at. Even when in an unfamiliar location walking or driving about. And this was long before GPS.
Whether it's the result of me being sensitive to the Earth's magnetic field or something else, don't know, but it's a nice "sense" to have.
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It's the sun's position in the sky. You aren't a superhero you nerd.
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Not necessarily, I'm the same way even in heavy overcast when you can't tell where the sun is. It seems to be more common among people who spend a lot of time hunting when young. I can apparently "feel" something like a compass needle, but have to rely on the terrain for telling the north from the south. Once spent an hour and a half walking exactly the wrong direction, looking at the map later it was easy to see what happened.
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I am the same way, but as the other poster who replied to you suggested, I'm reasonably certain it's mostly to do with the sun's position and a strong general ability with mapping 3D areas/shapes in my mind which makes it easier to orient with respect to landmarks or other visual features.
I have also read about the guy that made the magnetic belt (whichever side of the belt faced north vibrated) and I can fully imagine my sense of direction/navigational ability being even better with such a device.
I remembe
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Pilots and scu
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What happens when you come out of a movie theater? (assuming you can remember that far back...) I also consider myself to have a good sense of direction, and I absolutely hate it that the maps app on my iPhone has now way to set it to have north up, once you're moving. (You can temporarily set that, but once you're going, that setting turns itself off.)
But to get back to the point: whenever I come (or came...) out of a movie theater, my sense of direction is totally off. So I believe what's happening ha
addendum (Score:2)
I came up with this during the search. Did not know that people investigate if we still have the actual ability:
https://www.sciencemag.org/new... [sciencemag.org]
Interestingly, the news today comes from Tokyo; the Science paper above mentions collaborators in Tokyo (and other places)...
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
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For very far north parts of New Zealand I guess, somewhere out in the ocean (like for large values of 1).
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The scholar, from Germany if memory serves
I remember reading about this years ago. Here's a short article about it [theatlantic.com].
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How long before this is twisted (Score:4, Insightful)
We've all heard stories of people who claim to be "affected" by cell phones, saying the electromagnetic waves give them headaches. Except when they're told the phones are turned off but in reality are still left on, their "headache" goes away.
Figure the next 12 hours you can do a search and find postings saying this research validates what they've been saying even though, as stated above, they can't tell the difference if a phone is on or off.
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Some people do not know why they have headaches. So obviously if you trick them with phones sometimes you win sometimes they win.
Sorry, there is nothing wrong with people who actually are sensitive to magnetic fields and/or electric fields.
Re:How long before this is twisted (Score:4)
"Sorry, there is nothing wrong with people who actually are sensitive to magnetic fields and/or electric fields."
Sure there is, such people do not exist.
Nobody was ever able to tell if the magnetic field was ON or OFF in tests. Nobody.
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If they don't exist, how can there be something wrong with them? Come to think of it, they may even be infinitely well given the division by zero.
But I pity the poor fools who think they're in a group with no members. That's just plain nuts.
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"But I pity the poor fools who think they're in a group with no members. That's just plain nuts."
But that's my kind of club, I wouldn't want to be in one of those that accepts people like me.
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Something like when Alice saw no one on the road.
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Sure there is, such people do not exist.
Sure they do.
Nobody was ever able to tell if the magnetic field was ON or OFF in tests. Nobody. ...
Sure, yeah. And the tests I saw, all were fake. Thanks for the info, and I thought Max Plank Institute and other centers would be run by scientists. Probably I was wrong
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So obviously if you trick them with phones sometimes you win sometimes they win.
The people who claim to be affected by 3G/4G/5G are generally full of shit.
They did double-blind experiments to see if people who claimed to be harmed by phones could tell whether or not a phone was on. The phone was randomly on or off and hidden underneath a box that was transparent to the cellular bands.
Result: They performed at chance levels. I.e., they guessed right about 50% of the time.
There may be a miniscule number of people affected by cellular signals or other EMI, but they are a vanishingly small
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You are full of shit too.
There are hundreds of studies like this.
In some studies the studie won. In other studies the test persons won.
If you are not negatively influenced, good for you. But bashing people who are, is just idiotic.
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I advise such people to never touch modern technology whatsoever, remove all radio source and magnetic sources from their houses, and shield themselves with foil.
It's the only way to get them to STFU and get off my social media.
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Radio waves != Magnetic fields
One of these things is not like the other.
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Radio waves != Magnetic fields
One of these things is not like the other.
Doesn't matter. People with this mental disorder will find any link, no matter how tenuous or nonsensical.
It's like the people whining about the covid vaccines which use mRNA. They're in a panic it will change their DNA even though it is physically impossible.
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Radio waves are electromagnetic waves, and therefore cause (oscillating) magnetic fields.
I suppose you could also say that magnetic fields and radio waves also resemble each other in that there are people who claim to be affected by them. (I am pretty certain their claims are bogus.)
As usual a fail summary (Score:2)
This is not cells "responding" to a magnetic field. This is just evidence that the chemistry of 1 molecule inside cells can be affected by magnetic fields. "Cellular response" is an active (consumes energy) execution of a complex cascade of transcriptional changes, protein interactions that leads to a change in the state of the cell.
Calling this a "cellular response" is like demonstrating that fuel is flammable, and thus claiming to have created a rocket engine.
Just Magnetic Fields? (Score:2)
Pffft.
If you buy my special Alignment Bracelet, you will be able to sense and align to the Universal Higgs Field.
Buy now, and pay in Î easy payments.
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Hah. Serves me right for trying to put a "lambda" into /. posts
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Wait! Send me $5, and I will do even better: I'll send you an Alignment Bracelet that can sense and align to the Earth's gravitational field!
Move the plate of cells (Score:2)
They should physically rotate the cells so that they align/misalign with the Earth's magnetic field and see if that's detectable too. May have to increase the number of cells to see a signal.
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