A Report on Non-Ionizing Radiation

Earth's magnetic field: Microwave News Article Archive (2004 - )

February 27, 2023

“Statistical Amplification of the Effects of Weak Magnetic Fields in Cellular Translation,” Cells, posted February 24, 2023. by Vladimir Binhi of the General Physics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. “This mechanism predicts a random nature of the nonspecific effects caused by weak and hypomagnetic fields and agrees with the diversity of biological responses to a weak magnetic field.” Open access.

February 24, 2023

“Essential Elements of Radical Pair Magnetosensitivity in Drosophila,” Nature, published online February 22, 2023. Provides “strong evidence” that non-cryptochrome dependent radical pairs “can elicit magnetic field responses in cells.” From the University of Manchester (U.K.). Open access.

June 1, 2022

“Human Magnetic Sense Is Mediated by a Light and Magnetic Field Resonance‐Dependent Mechanism,” Scientific Reports, May 30, 2022. Establishes “the existence of a human magnetic sense to the geomagnetic field.” But, at least in this experiment, magnetic orientation was seen in men but not in women.

May 8, 2021

“Map-Like Use of Earth’s Magnetic Field in Sharks,” Current Biology, posted May 6, 2021. “The use of magnetic maps appears to be a fundamental tactic of how marine animals migrate. … This work points to a solution for a major puzzle in biogeography: how are migratory routes and population structure maintained in marine environments…”

July 20, 2020

“Magnetic Alignment Enhances Homing Efficiency of Hunting Dogs,” eLife, June 16, 2020.

“The research suggests that the magnetic field may provide dogs (and mammals generally) with a ‘universal’ reference frame, which is essential for long-distance navigation.” From Hynek Burda's group in the Czech Republic. More here.

June 24, 2014

“A Magnetic Compass Aids Monarch Butterfly Migration,” Nature Communications, posted online June 24, 2013.

Open access. A “vulnerability to consider is the potential disruption of the magnetic compass in monarchs by human-induced [EM] noise.”

August 6, 2013

“A Sense of Mystery: Researchers from various disciplines are homing in on the mechanics of magnetoreception, an enigmatic sense that some animals use to navigate the globe.” The Scientist, August 1, 2013.

“Most researchers in the field agree that the compass sense is likely seated in cryptochromes within the eye, and many are convinced that there is another sense, most likely a signpost sense, passed through the trigeminal nerve and probably based on some sort of iron-containing, magnetism-sensing cells in beaks or snouts. Then there is [David] Dickman and [Le-Qing] Wu’s idea: that both of these abilities may rely on receptors in the inner ear.”

June 28, 2011

Humans May Sense Magnetic Fields

Birds do it, butterflies do it, and now we learn that people may do it too. A group at the University of Massachusetts Medical School led by neurobiologist Steven Reppert reports that humans can sense the Earth's magnetic field. The finding prompts the team to suggest "a reassessment of human magnetosensivitiy may be in order." Check out the story...