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Life forms sense magnetic fields, likely in a variety of ways.
Electromagnetic forces are as much a fact of life at the biological scale
as they are at the cosmic.
Magnetite is a mineral with high magnetic sensitivity.
While originally thought to be exclusively a product
of high temperature and pressure conditions,
for some decades now it has been known that organisms can synthesize it themselves.
Nanoscale particles of magnetite can be found binding
to a microtubule's Tau-proteins and the tubulin lattice itself.
This has been revealed using fluorescence microscopy by scientists
at the Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of Tehran.
They surmise that biogenic magnetite in cells, by way of its tiny magnetic field,
serves as a mechanism for augmenting the electronic pathways of microtubules.
It appears that these nanoparticles might also have a role
in guiding the microtubule's growth process.
Although excess magnetite in the brain will actually impair their growth in operation.
This appears to occur substantially in Alzheimer's disease,
where one can observe a disorganized surplus of these tiny magnetic crystals,
possibly created by oxidative stress.
This excess may result in a bedlam of interfering magnetic fields.
Interest in this biological mineral was sparked by the initial discovery
of orderly chains of magnetite on the back of bacteria
that align themselves with magnetic north.
A few years ago, a sizable study by scientists at the University of Duisburg-Essen
cataloged the tendency for cows to similarly align themselves with magnetic north.
Of note, the study which claim to refute these findings was quite unpersuasive,
besides inaccurately identifying bales of hay as cows,
it made further mistakes detailed here.
But do cows have the same magneto-receptor that bacteria do?
A recent scientific study,
examining the current bevy of biological research on magnetoreceptors,
suggests that magnetite may not be the component responsible in vertebrates.
This 2015 article from scientists at the University of Western Australia
and University of Queensland, argues that we still do not know
how other common magnetic substances in the body might be utilized
or what such structures might look like beyond the magneto-zones of a bacteria.
In a previous model of magnetite-based magnetoreceptors,
it was calculated that single domain particles might open ion channels
as they turn slightly under the influence of geomagnetic forces.
But might some of the many nanoparticles binding directly to microtubules
in neurons provide magnetic input to organisms?
It is also wise to consider what systems of magnetoreception operate together,
either in tandem or because one system has more recently evolved
and now works alongside an older and less powerful one.
Cryptochrome is one such case.
These photo-receptive proteins have been studied
as regulators of circadian rhythms in both animals and plants.
However, effective experiments and new models
of crypochrome's magnetically sensitive molecular physics
have led many bio-physicist to posit its added function as a magnetoreceptor.
This is readily demonstrated in an experiment that uses cryptochrome
from the eyes of one species, which rarely employs it,
ourselves.
When one of the two types of cryptochrome, present in our eyes,
is trans-genetically given to fruit- flies,
those flies are imbued with the ability to perceive magnetic fields.
Cryptochrome possesses orientation-dependent light stimulation
of the FADH molecule held within it,
this slide exited FADH molecule then gains an electron
from an array of three neighboring Tryptophan amino-acids.
For about one millisecond, that can hold on to that electron
and remain in a signaling state until something removes that gained electron,
possibly an interaction, with 0₂ negative.
Each of these transition states, that of gaining and losing an electron,
ought to be affected by geomagnetic forces acting on the unpaired electrons,
thus, concerning how they may allow organisms to see magnetic fields.
Here is what the optical experience
of such magnetic guidance is believed to look like in birds.
Remembering Robin Baker's experiments on magnetoreception in humans,
which at least suggest a magnetoreceptive sense,
many of science enthusiasts will no doubt boldly wonder
how easily humans might reawaken this hypothesized magnetic sight.
The sight pictures here are some speculations useful to this endeavor,
for instance that humans may have lost their magnetic sight for adaptive reasons.
Specifically, perhaps the highly reactive 0₂ negative around the cryptochrome
has been willfully or happenstantially diminished in supply.
Perhaps our cells are no longer stocking this highly reactive
and potentially dangerous fuel for this magnetic sensor.
But perhaps the most fundamental electromagnetic antenna
in a life-form's body is actually its DNA.
Professor Reba Goodman is a geneticist,
who worked alongside Barbara McClintock on her 1983 Nobel Prize work.
Reba's own specialty of knowledge is in the field of epigenetic research,
studying how electromagnetic fields influence DNA.
A fractal antenna is a structure that conducts electromagnetic waves
and uses self-similarity in its design
to respond to an increasingly broader range of vibrational frequencies.
The double helix of DNA conducts electrons and experiments have identified at least
one formatting sequence, which is directly sensitive to electromagnetic fields.
According to a significant body of experimental work,
DNA's intricate patterns of self-similarity and its electronic conduction,
imbue it with the properties of a fractal antenna.
It picks up a broad range of frequencies, which interact with genes
flanked by the electromagnetically sensitive formatting sequence.
By some mechanism, different genes accompanied by that sequence
will respond to different EM frequencies.
This can also stimulate the synthesis of associated proteins.
Many scientists would likely believe that such non-thermal radiation
cannot influence biological systems, especially in this profound way.
But the arguments one usually voices are but a repetition
of old assumptions and sporadic evidence that don't measure up
to the weight of evidence in the field of modern biophysics.
Here is a snapshot of such evidence
As a Reba Goodman's longtime colleague, Martin Blank,
a biophysicist at Columbia University has said:
"Most public voices simply have little to no exposure to the relevant literature.
Here one can see an interesting debate between different opinions on this issue,
centering on matters of health policy
for health-safety measures around human-made electromagnetic infrastructure.
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