Humans may be able to see magnetic fields

[auroraglacialis]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0621121319.htm

Humans, however, are widely assumed not to have an innate magnetic sense. Research published in Nature Communications this week by faculty at the University of Massachusetts Medical School shows that a protein expressed in the human retina can sense magnetic fields when implanted into Drosophila

This is amazing - of course this is just a first step, but it seems that human retina has the ability to sense magnetic fields. If that ability is expressed or used in humans is not yet known, but it is there. If it is used already, it would be subconsciously. But this would mean that humans literally can see (with their eyes) magnetic fields, like the Earths magnetic field and potentially other magnetic or EM-fields as well. I just imagine (and this is of course stretching the scarce data) that humans could literally see the EM fields emitted by other living beings, humans and nonhumans. If I visualize this literally as something perceived with the eye (and this study points to it), I imagine a world that is glowing , that all plants and animals would show patterns and even the Earth itself would "glow". Maybe Earth was Pandora for us after all before we forgot how to "see" it.

[iron_jones]

We can be superheros! I am "Magnetic Man!"

but interesting article nonetheless.

[Isard]

Originally Posted by auroraglacialis

Can humans sense Earth's magnetism? Human retina protein can function as light-sensitive magnetic sensor


This is amazing - of course this is just a first step, but it seems that human retina has the ability to sense magnetic fields. If that ability is expressed or used in humans is not yet known, but it is there. If it is used already, it would be subconsciously. But this would mean that humans literally can see (with their eyes) magnetic fields, like the Earths magnetic field and potentially other magnetic or EM-fields as well. I just imagine (and this is of course stretching the scarce data) that humans could literally see the EM fields emitted by other living beings, humans and nonhumans. If I visualize this literally as something perceived with the eye (and this study points to it), I imagine a world that is glowing , that all plants and animals would show patterns and even the Earth itself would "glow". Maybe Earth was Pandora for us after all before we forgot how to "see" it.

Sensing is not the same as seeing. If we were able to "sense" magnetic fields, it doesn't mean we'd get see ghostly "fields" like in the movies. Seeing requires photons to be either reflected off a surface, or emitted for our eyes to process.

It is literally impossible to describe a sense that you haven't used, even if we can bring the trait out in a human subject, they will be unable to describe how they sense EM fields.


tl;dr The world doesn't glow, l2science.

[Moco Loco]

How fun

[Human No More]

That doesn't mean humans can just because a single protein allows the ability in a fruit fly.

As Isard said, it doesn't mean seeing them at all, as 'seeing them' brings to mind visible lines or similar.

"Additional research on magneto sensitivity in humans at the behavioral level, with particular emphasis on the influence of magnetic field on visual function, rather than non-visual navigation, would be informative," wrote Reppert and his colleagues in the study.

Still, interesting, I guess, although not of much consequence unless some kind of interface could be developed, which I would guess it lacks the resolution for since animals with such an ability work on a geological scale.

[tm20]

[X.,.Pandora.,.X]

/looks outside


nope can't see any

[Human No More]

X Pandora X - that much is obvious, please don't spam.

[X.,.Pandora.,.X]

I was making a point HNM haha, this theory is ridiculous.

[Vawm tsamsiyu]

If we "activated" this ability, how we perceive magnetic fields depends on how our brain deals with it. It could use the same parts that our eyes do for light making it seem like light hiting the nagnetsic fields and hitting our eyes. If our eyes are the things detecting them them it probably uses the same area of the brain as the rest of the eye.

[Fosus]

This IS amazing indeed

Magnetic fields sure don't show up in vision, but perhaps, can make eyes feel different. No one usually pays attention to how eyes feel unless they're hurt.

[Fosus]

According to this Humans have a magnetic sensor in our eyes, but can we detect magnetic fields? | Not Exactly Rocket Science | Discover Magazine

When she loaded her mutants flies with human CRY2, she found that they could sense magnetic fields like their normal peers. Foley also found that human cryptochrome is sensitive to blue light. It only managed to restore the magnetic sense of flies when they were bathed in this colour.

Dunno why but this immediately made me think of the blueness of Pandora

[auroraglacialis]

Well as I said I can imagine that it is a more subconscious thing or we have lost the ability to consciously perceive. It could manifest in a scenery to look eerie or calming or sickening or beautiful without any obvious reason for that - or it could lead to us intuitively knowing where to go to get back to the car or if a person is standing next to us or not, but we might loose that ability if it is dark or close the eyes (which usually is something that is done in experiments to exclude visual interference). It certainly would be an interesting research to prove or disprove that, I hope it will be done

[Human No More]

That seems unlikely with the pervasiveness of both natural and artificial fields, as well as the fact that there is no way such an ability would be present but ignored or people would have grown up with it and there would have been studies in it before now.

[auroraglacialis]

Well regarding artificial fields - that may rather point to that sense being shut down by these (like when you hear a loud white noise all the time, you may not hear the voices anymore and be defined as deaf). When it comes to ignoring an ability - a lot of abilities have withered in the majority of humans. Just think of what is possible for blind people when it comes to the senses of smell and hearing and touching. Could you as a non-blind person "see" the letters in braille written somewhere? I am not saying this exists, but that right now there is a hint that it might and that is worth looking into.
I dont know how many studies and with what setting have been made. Given that these sensors are only active in combination with light, any studies that include blindfolding people would disqualify. Also I would not be so sure, given the things above said, that doing these studies with random people living in an industrialized nation with artificial fields all around them all day long would make sense. But I astonsishingly notice that this starts to drift from science (they did after all find these genes in human retinas) so something that is almost new age.