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Skeptics still doubt the claims of
'mesmerists' or modern-day healers who claim that an unknown energy
(to science anyway) flows from the healer to the patient. Mesmer
referred to this mysterious fluid as animal magnetism.
20th Century scientists have discovered a form of animal
magnetism in birds and fish, however.
Zoologists are studying the magnetic field generated and detected by the
elephant-nosed fish from Africa at the
American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Other scientists
are studying how other animals detect magnetic fields. This previously
unknown ability
is found in organisms as different as bacteria
and sea turtles.
Since the 1990s, biologists have discovered that electroreception
is used in at least three mammals, the platypus, the spiny anteater
and the star-nosed mole. Crystals of magnetite have been found
in magnetic-sensitive
bacteria and in the brains of some animals,
including homing pigeons.
Magnetite is a form of iron oxide which,
under the name lodestone, was used for primitive compasses by
mariners as early as the twelfth century. There are bundles of
magnetite crystals in the bird's head, whose response to the Earth's
magnetic field when the head is moved triggers impulses in surrounding
nerves (see apparatus on pigeon, right).
In 1992 magnetite crystals were found in the human brain. No one
is sure yet if humans can sense magnetic fields, but magnetite
is a very strong absorber of microwave radiation. It is also interesting
to note that single-domain magnetite crystals experience a torque
when exposed to static and low-frequency fields. The implication
of these discoveries is that fields from power lines, cellular
telephones, computers and monitors could be affecting us right now.
In 1996 a team led by researchers from NASA's Johnson Space Center
in Houston found what they believe are fossils of tiny extraterrestrial organisms stuck
to the surface of a meteorite that came from Mars.
Under an electron microscope the researchers saw magnetite and iron-
sulfide particles similar to those discovered in Earth bacteria.
In 2006 investigators found the oldest life on earth, fossils created
by microbes 3.4 billion years ago.
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