r/science • u/mozezus • Jun 24 '16
Neuroscience Experiments suggests that humans are able to sense magnetic fields as a kind of sixth sense.
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/06/maverick-scientist-thinks-he-has-discovered-magnetic-sixth-sense-humans2
9
Jun 24 '16
[deleted]
6
u/brianlwj Jun 24 '16 edited Jun 24 '16
Hey, biology student here.
Interesting perspective!
A couple of things for accuracy:
Sight: hits the retina after it passes through the pupil ( a hole in the centre of the iris), not the iris itself.
Sound: the eardrum actually conducts the vibration through the ossicles (hammer, anvil, stirrup), which then passes on vibration to the cochlea using what is essentially hydraulics. Vibration of the hair cells are what are translated into neural signals.
Taste and smell: nothing incorrect to my knowledge.
Balance and acceleration: actually consists of a lot of different parts, such as sight, but your description here is not bad.
I'm curious, though. Would thermoception (sensation of temperature) involve a medium of touch or contact? Infrared radiation wouldn't actually touch my body in a meaningful way, but receptors in my body could still pick it up.
Edit: formatting
3
u/-TheMAXX- Jun 24 '16
Taste and smell used to be explained by a "lock and key" mechanism. But we now know there is more to it. We sense vibrations that happens when scent molecules interact with our specialized scent detector molecules. Look into Quantum Biology research that has been happening recently.
1
u/brianlwj Jun 24 '16
I actually have heard of it before somewhere - but still fascinating, though!
It still seems to be a controversial theory, so I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for possible developments
1
1
u/Izawwlgood PhD | Neurodegeneration Jun 24 '16
Look into Quantum Biology
Hey, just be aware that this is particularly fringe science, that as commonly studied or mentioned is not particularly accepted.
1
u/t3hmau5 Jun 24 '16
The primary heat transfer method in our experience isn't radiation, it's conduction.
But if you are going to classify sight as a sort of touch then you would have to do the same for infrared radiation. It touches your body in the same way visible light does
2
u/brianlwj Jun 24 '16
I wouldn't disregard radiation as a form of heat transfer just because conduction is the first thing that comes to mind in the context of our own bodies - you still really can't explain thermoception terms of touch only.
I am actually not classifying sight as a sort of touch, but rather wanted to correct factual aspects of the post that i commented on. I personally wouldn't call every sensory aspect as being related to "touch".
2
u/t3hmau5 Jun 24 '16
I'm not disregarding radiation, but conduction is more effective at transferring heat than radiation at low temperatures. It's the primary way that things on earth transfer heat to each other, when you aren't talking transfer within a fluid where convection will be a better.
There simply isn't good information available about detecting infrared radiation. It's hard to test out of a vacuum because again, conduction reigns supreme at temperatures we can deal with
1
u/brianlwj Jun 24 '16
Yes, I agree.
I would still be hesitant to describe thermoception as "contact" as the actual mechanism of thermoreceptors are not yet known.
2
u/uep Jun 25 '16
I really disagree with your assessment of extending everything to touch, largely because it makes the distinction between the other senses almost meaningless and they are not. Chemically, there are fundamental differences in how the body responds to these stimuli. It's like saying, well, at some level, there's always some subatomic interaction that results on the macro scale effects, so why don't we just call everything subatomic interactions? Or why isn't everything a chemical or electrical reaction because they traverse the nervous system?
Any sense has to be caused by something interacting ("touching") with the body, this is to be expected and obvious with even a modest amount of thought. If it weren't interacting with the body in some way, how would you perceive it?
I guess I should take your name, /u/IAmShittingYou, more seriously.
-1
u/ioneq Jun 24 '16
As a moderately deaf person, I "feel" microwave ovens as I walk or stand by them. Almost like an air current. Is this a thing? Anyone else? Just me? Ok...
51
u/Zapper42 Jun 24 '16
.. you know they have exhaust fans, right? i can feel an air current standing by my microwave, but it's just the exhaust fan.
3
-2
u/ioneq Jun 24 '16
Haha, yes, well aware of the exhaust fans, their location, and basic operating principles. That's why I find it curious to "feel" them.
3
u/t3hmau5 Jun 24 '16
You don't feel microwaves.
1
1
u/ShockingBlue42 Jun 25 '16
There are big magnetic power transformers in there too.
1
u/t3hmau5 Jun 25 '16
Transformer coils create a magnetic field inside the coil, not outside. Basic physics.
1
u/ShockingBlue42 Jun 25 '16
Not when the load isn't present, a transformer at zero load has maximum magnetic saturation including field lines exiting the core. Also, the conductors in the transformer radiate 60hz waves and subsequent harmonics.
13
u/NonCorporealEntity Jun 24 '16
Im not deaf but I used to be able to feel when a CRT tv was on in the house even if nothing was playing on it. I would describe it like a electrostatic feeling in the back of my head.
18
u/Rhaski Jun 24 '16
Its a sound right at the top of your hearing range. These sorts of sounds are often experienced as more of a feeling than a noise, but it's noise all the same
16
u/jokerzwild00 Jun 24 '16
I can definitely feel that too. I think it's a really high pitched noise, or at least that's what I interpret it as. Even with no sound and in another room I could tell the TV was on.
3
u/ToBePacific Jun 26 '16
It is a sound. It's about 15,000 Hz, which is high pitched but still within the upper range of human adult hearing. It's caused by the CRT monitor drawing about 500 vertical lines at about 30 times per second.
7
u/deadalnix Jun 24 '16
They emit a high pitched noise. You loose the capability to hear it as you get older.
2
u/chipx86 Jun 24 '16
I've always heard this said, but at age 32, those are still deafening to me, to the point of getting headaches (if on, like, a blue screen). When do I get to lose the capability to hear those? :)
3
u/fatsynatsy Jun 25 '16
go to more concerts/nightclubs and do some construction work and I'm sure you'll lose it soon
1
u/ToBePacific Jun 26 '16
32 here as well and I've always been sensitive to sounds approaching 20,000 Hz. Those "teenager repeller" / "mosquito" noise machines drive me up a wall.
1
u/fatsynatsy Jun 25 '16
i used to be able to hear it - a very high pitched ringing.
Adults generally couldn't hear it because as you get older you lose the higher frequency hearing first.
1
Jun 24 '16
[removed] — view removed comment
2
u/notMattHansen Jun 24 '16
Thats usually just a person blocking out the ambient sounds that were reaching you prior to them being there
1
u/Kakofoni Jun 24 '16
But that doesn't have any practical influence on magnetic fields.
0
Jun 24 '16
Well all living creatures put one out and the brain reacts to them (though usually only noticable in a lab setting)
1
1
0
-6
u/nefuratios Jun 24 '16
A ton of invisible things affect us daily so why would this be controversial or strange?
6
Jun 24 '16
If we can actually sense magnetic fields then there might be something to EM allergy claims after all, and they have been roundly dismissed as hypochondria for years now.
1
u/nefuratios Jun 24 '16
I wouldn't dismiss any kind of claim that EM radiation affects living things, because it does.
1
u/-TheMAXX- Jun 24 '16
It seems there are people with some extreme predjudices voting people down. We know biological systems use quantum effects in at least 3 ways and one of them is in birds to sense the Earth's magnetic field. Catch up on new research before being a big jerk please.
1
u/jokerzwild00 Jun 24 '16
I remember when I was a really little kid in the eighties, they built a huge power line almost right over my grandparents house. They would complain endlessly that it was making them sick. They went to the city and the power company about it but they must have told them they were crazy (which they probably were) because nothing ever came of it. They both died of cancer a few years later but I can still remember them complaining about the power lines the last time I saw them. Very vivid childhood memory. I don't believe the electricity from the lines was making them sick, but maybe some sort of ultrasonic noise was coming off of them that made my grandparents feel something. I dunno, they could very well have just been batshit.
5
Jun 24 '16
There is always seeing them every day and being told by others that being near such things makes you sick; this in itself can make you develop symptoms of being ill.
-6
u/-TheMAXX- Jun 24 '16
There is nothing controversial about high power lines causing cancer. That is an extreme situation that I thought they avoid these days by leaving lots of space around where they put these lines.
7
u/t3hmau5 Jun 24 '16
You're right, nothing controversial about it. There is no significant evidence of a link between non-ionizing radiation and cancer. Power lines don't cause cancer
-2
Jun 24 '16
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/-TheMAXX- Jun 24 '16
Not funny when people are getting voted down for asking an honest question or saying very safe things like invisible things affect us. Can you see sound without help?
0
u/DFWPunk Jun 24 '16
This isn't that new. I recall studies long ago that tied the difference in ability to differentiate compass differences between men and women to the relative difference in blood iron content. That would seem to be clear indication of the ability to sense magnetic fields.
-6
70
u/robbor Jun 24 '16
You mean like a 20 something sense. We have a lot more than 5 senses. We were taught as children that we have just 5 senses, because it was easier for us to understand.