IUBio

Human magnetic sense

r norman rsn_ at _comcast.net
Tue Jun 22 22:05:31 EST 2004


On Tue, 22 Jun 2004 20:16:11 GMT, Wren Rice <nospam at nospam.com> wrote:

>Many animals have been found to have internal magnets. They use these
>internal magnets for a variety of purposes. There is a bacterium that
>uses its internal magnetic material to sense up and down so it can find
>food on the bottom of its aquatic environment. Some birds are known to
>navigate by using their ability to sense the Earths magnetic field.
>
>Humans have extremely limited or no magnetic sense. I question, could
>such a sense be surgically provided? Could a small implant be developed
>that would allow a human to sense the Earths magnetic field?
>
>If so, it would also raise a question of what this might do. Would there
>be a down side as well as an up side? A person would probably have a
>vastly improved sense of direction but, they might be prone to
>experience unpleasant sensations when getting near unstable magnetic
>fields or very strong fields such as an MRI machine.

Adding a magnetic sense would be difficult to  integrate with all our
experience.  We could learn to use something like that, but then, we
could probably more easily be outfitted with GPS receivers and learn
to use them, instead.





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