I've broken my new watch. It lasted two weeks. Of all the useless powers to have, destroying watchers has got to be top of anyone's list. After zapping numerous watches, too many to list, I discovered a cheap one (the one before my last) that lasted more than a month. My father had the same skill, so I am thinking it is inherited. I had actually began to relax, then, I had a stressful work-related week in Brussels. My worst day of the week, Thursday, obviously was too much for the watch and it stopped. Given that it chose that particular day to die perhaps, I generate electromagnetic waves when in distress? Perhaps sufficiently intense to stop watch mechanisms? This business of messing with mechanical systems via distance seems nonsensical at first. But we all emit huge quantities of infrared radiation every moment of our lives. Sit in a packed conference room for a whole day soon you will become aware just how much heat energy is being constantly radiated from humans around you. Plants have an electromagnetic field around them that can be picked up. So is it too much to speculate there is a field of sorts around us? It's time I understood this thing. Or is it purely imaginary? Can these magnetic fields do stuff?
Well, some aquatic animals, such as sharks and rays, have acute bioelectric sensors providing a sense known as electroreception (they can sense your body’s electricity in the water- darn them!), while migratory birds navigate in part by orienteering with respect to the Earth's magnetic field. In an extreme application of electromagnetism the electric eel is able to generate a large electric field outside its body used for hunting and self-defense through a dedicated electric organ. So living things already use interaction with magnetic and electric fields to detect prey, navigate long distances and even to attack others. In addition, electromagnetic radiation at a certain frequency range has found a place in modern medical practice for the treatment of bone healing and for nerve stimulation and regeneration. So electric and magnetic fields do quite a lot of stuff.
We all exist in the earth’s magnetic field which depending on your geographical location can be anywhere from (30 - 70) x 10-6 Tesla. Doesn’t sound a lot does it? If you stand under high direct current transmission lines there can be an additional magnetic flux of around 20x 10-6 Tesla produced. Fast passenger trains based on magnetic levitation produce high magnetic flux densities close to the motor. But inside the cabin the fields are relatively low, below 100 x 10-6 Tesla. Mind you a thousand times stronger localised fields can result from inductors beneath the floor of passenger coaches. MRI machines use magnetic flux densities of 0.15-3 Tesla (usually limited to exposure of less than an hour). However medical staff can be exposed for longer periods of time and in researching brain functions fields of up to 10 Tesla can be used. There are many ways static magnetic fields interact with living matter. Magnetic induction, magnetic mechanical and electronic interaction. Static fields exert Lorentz forces over moving electrolytes and give rise to induced electric fields and currents. So for example our flowing blood can be affected. It is thought that the sinoartial node of the heart that controls cardiac pacing is perhaps the most sensitive to magnetic fields but that as long as we stay beneath 8Tesla things should be fine. 8Tesla applied to rats reduced blood flow, which is worrying, admittedly. In fact, in magnetic fields above 4Tesla rats show aversion and avoidance characteristics. It is suspected that the fields at this strength may interact with the vestibular apparatus - the parts of the ear responsible for balance. Time varying magnetic fields as low as 2-3 Tesla can cause vertigo and nausea if patients/workers move within the field. These magnetic fields induce currents in living tissues and in accordance with Faraday's law of induction these effects are substantial, especially if we move around within them. That is the weird thing about electric and magnetic fields, they are quite different in how they operate.
If we are charged and within an electric field we experience immediately a force dependent on our charge and the strength of the electric field. Magnetic fields however are related to the strength of the magnetic field, our charge and our velocity. So we could be in a strong field and not know until we start moving. It is that velocity that will induce the full force.
This always makes a fundamental statement to me about life. On this magnetic planet we are governed by her rules and perhaps there are spiritual metaphors to be learned. i.e. if you want change in your life, move! Only when you move will the forces available to you come into play. Being stationary will not avail. Makes you feel that getting going is so important, just so that you can experience the dynamic powers that could be there. Sailors know that unless a sailing yacht is moving steering does not work. It is the movement of the boat that makes being able to steer possible. It doesn’t matter if you have to tack in odd directions to catch the wind, you will achieve more by gaining some velocity. Then work out where you want to go.
PS I have decided to give up on watches. Don’t know why or how I break them but the evidence is clear, I do. Time to accept that as a fact and move on. It’s all quite new and I keep looking at my wrist for the time and of course there is nothing there. The sad part is I am still surprised by its absence and it has been three weeks! This getting old is tricky dicky.
