Everyone knows shuttle navigate usingmagnetoreception , finding their way over Brobdingnagian distances by aligning themselves with Earth ’s magnetic field of battle as they set about their heroic one-year migration . However , some scientists consider that the ability to detect the planet ’s magnetic force may in fact be present in all animate being – include human race .
Among the biggest proponents of this idea is geophysicist Joe Kirschvink of the California Institute of Technology , who , at a league in London in April , presented the results of a small subject field that he believes proves that people do indeed possess the power to detect magnetic fields . In an email toScienceshortly after giving his presentation , he triumphantly claim that his inquiry had “ complete it , ” providing well-defined grounds that “ human race have functioning magnetoreceptors . ”
Magnetoreceptionhas been watch in a wide reach of organisms , including some very basic bacteria , which ordinate themselves with the poles of attractor when localise nearby . This has result Kirschvink to mistrust that the absolute majority of advanced mammals have believably retained this ability from their earliest ancestors . Dogs , for instance , are thought to align themselves along the major planet ’s compass north - south axis when pooping . However , since man do n’t on a regular basis habituate magnetoreception , we ’ve sort of forgotten how to do it .
The self-aggrandizing trouble front Kirschvink and others working in this field of battle is that no one knows how magnetoreception works , as researchers have failed to bump any biological components that could officiate as magnetoreptors , even in animals that are unambiguously known to possess this “ sixth sense . ” Therefore , while Kirschvink continue positive that humans do indeed retain this ability , he has no idea what electric organ might be responsible for it , articulate “ the receptor could be in your left toe . ”
Yet that has n’t dissuade him from investigating . In his latest experiments , investigator passed rotating magnetic fields through participants while measuring their cortical potential . In doing so , they found that when the magnetized field was rotated anti - clockwise , certain nerve cell responded to this change , generating a spindle in electrical activity .
Since the only changing variable was the direction of the magnetic field of study , the researchers are confident that this natural process could only have been in reaction to this , and therefore resolve that humans are indeed capable of magnetoreception . However , while Kirschvink insists that this experiment proves the bearing of magnetoreceptors in humans , it does not reveal where in the body these sensory receptor are locate or how they work .
