Comments on: Neurons in a pigeon’s brain respond to magnetic fields

By: Ali Cat

Ali Cat — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 01:21:56 +0000

Hi Ed,
Thanks for your reply.
I was wondering more about whales, dolphins and porpoises. Do they use the Earth’s magnetism?
With pigeons, is it possible that the position of the trigeminal nerve allows it to detect a polarity within the iron in the beak even if it is not magnetite? Can the iron be doing two jobs?

I question the dead end thinking that something is just imagination. Surely there is a spectrum of sensations between nothing and electrocution? Depending upon the sensitivity of the individual. Ever ‘tasted’ a 9volt battery?

Two other examples, I can tell you if hematite has been magnetized or not, by how it feels in my hand, not everyone is able to discern this subtle difference but it’s probably just practice. Magnetized hematite makes my hand ache, it feels like resistance, I’m only speculating but perhaps it effects the flow in my own magnetic field, effecting they way localized nerves talk to each other.
Also, When my child is holding their iPod and it is being charged using only a 2 prong plug (Australian, unearthed) I can feel the current when I touch them. It’s the same fuzzy buzz sensation I get from my lap top when it is also charging with only the 2 prong plug.
When I switch to the 3 prong plug the unpleasant sensation is not present because it is earthed.

So what part of me is detecting the electrical current and/or magnetism and what part is perceiving the electrical current and/or magnetism?

It seems pointless to dismiss these phenomena as imagination, if there could be some clues to how electrical and magnetic fields might effect us, considering we are bio-electrical, we have iron in our hemoglobin, we evolved on a planet with magnetic fields, and we are now surrounded by man made electrical fields. Don’t we owe it to ourselves to find out how these things effect us?
Just because we rely on GPS now doesn’t mean that ancient cultures didn’t use the earth’s magnetism to navigate, perhaps our bombarded modern lives have cheated us out of some amazing abilities that only ancient or seemingly primitive cultures could use.

It’s exciting to speculate, and even more exciting when that speculation bares fruit.

By: Ed Yong

Ed Yong — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 00:23:26 +0000

Yep. Some beetles. Ants. I *think* spiny lobsters…

By: Felipe Beijamini

Felipe Beijamini — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 23:41:31 +0000

“Turtles (not mammals, but ocean animals)”.

Besides pigeon and turtles there is some arthropods with “magnetic sensors”, right?

By: Ali Cat

Ali Cat — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 23:30:50 +0000

Also, fish seem very sensitive to magnetism, and other vibrations like microwaves, my very friendly fish freak out if I use my iPhone too close to their tank. And calm down when I take it away.
Do some migrating fish use the earth’s magnetism to navigate? Is it possible they may hold a clue to how it works?

By: Ed Yong

Ed Yong — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 23:28:11 +0000

“Do ocean mammals have similar abilities?”

Not to anyone’s knowledge. One dolphin can sense electric fields, but no magnetic sense yet. Turtles (not mammals, but ocean animals) can sense magnetic fields. But the mechanism is unclear. See one of the links at the end.

“When we sense EM fields from things like crystals and unearthed electrical devices, what part of us is perceiving these sensations?”

Your imagination.

By: Ali Cat

Ali Cat — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 23:16:18 +0000

Do ocean mammals have similar abilities?
Maybe if we can locate it in one animal it will help us locate it in other animals.
When we sense EM fields from things like crystals and unearthed electrical devices, what part of us is perceiving these sensations?
Is it at all similar to magneto bird?
BTW, Love the picture!

By: Alex

Alex — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 07:19:32 +0000

Thanks sedeer!

By: sedeer

sedeer — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 22:48:38 +0000

Alex: magnetoperception has been pretty clearly implicated in navigation. For example, when robins are placed in a magnetic field polarized opposite to the Earth’s they migrate in the wrong direction (eg, heading south instead of north).

By: Davide Castelvecchi

Davide Castelvecchi — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 21:26:33 +0000

Actually, none of the experts I talked to when I wrote about this (Scientific American, January 2012) said that the cryptochrome theory was fait accompli. Not even its staunchest proponents thought it had been proven true yet. And whether FAD is the molecule involved is highly speculative. The results published in Nature were presented at a meeting last year. I couldn’t go into detail in my piece but I did quote people saying that that the beak magnetite model had been discredited. Also, no one seemed to buy the eyepatch results either. What people did tell me is that the trigeminal nerve may be involved because it also carries information from the snout… that is where people are betting that the magnetite sensors are located.

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 19:06:11 +0000

Very interesting. Have there been similar tests in other animals? Perhaps the response to changes in the magnetic field occurs in the neurons of many animals and is not functionally relevant for navigation.