Worcester - Animals often travel far like turtles and humpback whales can be sensing the Earth's magnetic field as a navigation aid. However, in a recent study found that humans also have the talent to see that the magnetic field.
Humans is capable of Seeing Magnetic Field with Sixth Sense
The ability to see magnetic fields in humans comes from cryptochrome proteins are stored inside the eye. This unique protein helps the animal to recognize the magnetic field while migrating long distances.
"Maybe the ability to see magnetic field can be considered as a sixth sense in humans," said researchers from the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Steven Reppert told LiveScience.
To prove the ability to see magnetic fields in humans, researchers attach cryptochrome proteins to the body of the fruit flies that had been wrapped around the coil. Fruit flies itself is known not to have cryptochrome.
Furthermore, researchers electrical current through the coil causing the magnetic induction. By changing the position and strength of the magnetic field induction, researchers found fruit flies in this experiment to be sensitive to magnetic fields.
Currently Reppert continued his research on how the brain reads the information of cryptochrome proteins. "At a basic level, we were interested in how information from cryptochrome moved into nerve cells," he said.
Other researchers from the University of Illinois, Klaus Schulten, who was not involved in the study welcomed the findings Reppert. "Reports on the research paper is very impressive," he said.
According to him, the effect of absorbing protein cryptochrome as a magnetic field can only be ascertained in fruit flies. However, humans may need this protein in the earlier stages of evolution. "It is reasonable if humans have a response to a magnetic field. It would be very beneficial for the old human," says Schulten.
