A Report on Non-Ionizing Radiation

animal magnetism: Microwave News Article Archive (2004 - )

March 31, 2016

“The results of our experiments suggest the remarkable sensitivity … of the Antarctic amphipod … Even 2 nT RF regardless of frequency was able to disrupt orientation.” (1-10 MHz)

June 18, 2015

“Magnetosensitive Neurons Mediate Geomagnetic Orientation in C. elegans,” eLIFE, posted online June 17, 2015.

“Our findings that the direction of vertical migrations could be reversed by an imposed magnetic field and that wild-type populations of worms from opposite hemispheres displayed opposite vertical migration preference strongly suggests that C. elegans relies on the geomagnetic field rather than gravity.” (open access).

March 25, 2015

“Anthropogenic RF EMFs as an Emerging Threat to Wildlife Orientation,” Science of the Total Environment, June 15, 2015.

May 7, 2014

“Anthropogenic EM Noise Disrupts Magnetic Compass Orientation in a Migratory Bird,” Nature, May 8, 2014.

By a group at Germany’s University of Oldenburg. “[U]sing a double-blinded protocol we have documented a clear and reproducible effect on a biological system of anthropogenic EM fields much weaker than the current ICNIRP guidelines.” With an accompanying comment by Joe Kirschvink of CalTech: The authors “demonstrate convincingly that migrating European robins stop using their magnetic compasses in the presence of extraordinarily weak, RF EM ‘noise’” in the 20 kHz-5 MHz frequency range (includes AM radio frequencies). See coverage of Nature, Science, and the Washington Post —and this comment from DARPA.

January 7, 2014

An Inordinate Love of Foxes?

When asked what he had learned about God from his studies of evolutionary biology, J.B.S. Haldane replied that the Creator has “an inordinate fondness of beetles” — after all, there are 400,000 different species of beetles and only 8,000 species of mammals. Take a look at this video and you might wonder whether red foxes are another of God’s favorite creatures. (Be sure to watch the clip in full screen mode.)

The red fox hunts by jumping up in the air and diving for its prey. As the narrator tells us, the fox can locate a mouse even when hidden under a deep pile of snow. It’s tempting to attribute a fox’s success to a keen sense of hearing or smell, but it turns out to be more complicated than that. A German-Czech team of researchers has found that red foxes have an added advantage: They can use the Earth’s magnetic field to home in on their target.

August 12, 2013

“Why are Living Things Sensitive  to Weak Magnetic Fields?” Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine, by Abe Liboff, posted online August 5, 2013.

“[W]e speculate that the widely observed weak-field [~50 nT] biomagnetic responses typified … stem from early evolutionary recognition of the diurnal change in the [geomagnetic field] as a precise zeitgeber; indeed one that outperforms the sun itself, in that it happens independently of cloudy skies.”

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.”

February 14, 2013

“Evidence for Geomagnetic Imprinting as a Homing Mechanism in Pacific Salmon,” Current Biology, 

posted online February 7, 2013. "These results provide the first empirical evidence of geomagnetic imprinting in any species …"

July 13, 2012

“Health Effects of Extremely Low Frequency Magnetic Fields: Reconsidering the Melatonin Hypothesis in Light of Current Data on Magnetoreception,” Journal of Applied Toxicology, published online June 13, 2012.

July 10, 2012

“Source of Animal Magnetism Identified,”

The Scientist, July 9, 2012.

July 10, 2012

“Trout Nose Cells Follow Magnetic Fields,”

Science News, July 9, 2012.

May 14, 2004

Weak Fields Can Disrupt Bird Navigation

Very weak radiation can have a profound influence on a robin’s magnetic compass. A group led by Prof. Thorsten Ritz has shown that 7 MHz signals of less than 100 nanowatts per square centimeter can disorient the bird’s migratory flight. The new findings appear in the May 13 issue of Nature.

"Pigeon GPS Identified"

The Scientist, April 26, 2012.

Study Sheds Light on How Birds Navigate by Magnetic Field,"

New York Times, April 27, 2012.

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