Scientists are uncovering more and more data on the phenomenon of animal magnetoreception—which provides the ability of certain species to navigate using the Earth’s magnetic field. Is this remarkable ability evidence for evolution—or for a divine Designer? This two-part series discusses some of the research findings and demonstrates how magnetoreception supports creation.
In recent years, humans have gained the ability to navigate with satellite-based GPS systems. But some animals possess internal GPS systems, probably for millennia. The amazing explanation for this feature—which scientists are uncovering—is that certain species are able to read small variations in the intensity of Earth’s magnetic field and use that to guide them to their destination.
A recent article1 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)reports that researchers were able to “reproducibly detect magnetic cells” firmly coupled to the cell membrane in the trout olfactory epithelium (the tissue in the nasal cavity linked to smell).2 This article states that trout’s magnetic cells “clearly meet the physical requirements for a magnetoreceptor capable of rapidly detecting small changes in the external magnetic field.”
Over 50 years of scientific study of this phenomenon have revealed that it is made possible because magnetite3 (a highly magnetic mineral) occurs naturally in the cells of many organisms—including the human brain.4
Pigeons are similarly endowed with magnetoreceptors. An article featured in the May 25, 2012 issue of Science describes research which suggests this is due to the design of the pigeon brainstem:5
Neuronal responses in the pigeon’s brainstem...show how single cells encode magnetic field direction, intensity, and polarity—qualities that are necessary to derive an internal model representing directional heading and geosurface location.
And yet another recent paper in Current Biology reports data which “imply that loggerhead [sea turtles] have a navigational system that exploits the Earth’s magnetic field as a kind of bicoordinate magnetic map from which both longitudinal and latitudinal information can be extracted.”6
Cutting through the technical jargon: scientists are piecing together how salmon know to travel hundreds of miles to the spawning ground of their birth, how homing pigeons know how to find home, how sea turtles know the roundtrip route from Florida to Africa, and how a variety of animals have an intuitive directional sense that has defied explanation for centuries.
This research is revealing that many animals have natural magnetoreceptors that read and interpret the Earth’s magnetic field.
The Planet’s Magnetism
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