Humans have a sixth sense that allows them to detect the earth’s magnetic field, according to a scientist.
Joe Kirschvink, a researcher from the California Institute of Technology has been conducting tests on 24 participants to prove that humans share the same magneto-reception trait as dogs, birds and insects.
Kirschvink believes humans have an ability to detect the magnetic field given off by the planet, and says he has evidence to back it up.
At this time, the study has not been peer-reviewed, so we only have Kirschvink's word to go by.
Kirschvink’s colleague, Professor Peter Hore from Oxford University told Science magazine: “Joe’s a very smart man and a very careful experimenter.”
The evidence gathered in the latest experiments is all largely behavioural and based on human’s patterns of movement – showing that changing the magnetic energy can alter people’s movement.
But finding the magneto-receptors in the brain responsible for such a power is like “looking for a needle in a haystack as the receptors could be in your left toe”, says Kirschvink.
Despite the scepticism around the latest findings, it doesn’t seem a huge improbability that humans do have this ability as studies have long shown that insects, birds and some mammals (including dogs) were able to sense this same energy.
In fact it has even been shown that dogs prefer to empty their bowels when aligned on a north-south axis, which is why they spin around before finding somewhere to release their bowels.
In more recent years even lobsters, worms, snails and frogs have been shown to possess this trait – according to Science magazine - despite the need for globetrotting being lesser than mammalian peers.