Humans Might Be Able to See the Earth's Magnetic Field, Like Birds Do.

Came across this article on Popular Science...Very interesting...Nothing seems impossible and this isn't far fetched imo.

Without realizing it, humans might be able to innately detect Earth’s magnetic field, thanks to a compound found in our eyes. Or we may have been able to do so some time in the past.

Neuroscientists at the University of Massachusetts took a human version of cryptochrome 2, and inserted it into fruit flies that lacked their own version. The fruit flies’ magnetic perception was restored, as Wired Science reports.

PopSci

This is true you can learn to use this ability with practice.
I agree with these findings.

The sub-conscious mind evaluates lots of data, without our ever noticing it. Can't see why this isn't the case here.

This is really interesting... I'm not doubting this at all, but how exactly were the scientists able to know that the fruit flies' magnetic perception was restored? Maybe they asked a fly to fly due east?

I definitely believe this particular skill to be inherent in migratory animals, but the fact that that protien exists in the human eye is pretty cool. Hopefully one day we can tap into that

I grew up looking at a portion of the Rocky Mountains most of my life. I never really gave it much thought but after I graduated from High School I left and went to school in Amarillo, TX, the flattest place on the planet!

I was walking down the street when suddenly it hit me that I did not know which direction I was headed. I stopped, I looked around, and still I could not tell which way was North and which way was South! Panic set in and for the first time in my life I was without direction. I attributed it to not having a known landmark.

It was really scary and upsetting and I had to walk into a business and ask them, something that had never occurred before, asking for directions! LOL (I know, men and directions!)

At least I asked!

reply to post by deanGI5


Humans are migratory, and have been for hundreds of thousands of years.

reply to post by Aeons


I guess I must be an exception ha

Originally posted by Aeons
reply to post by deanGI5

 

Humans are migratory, and have been for hundreds of thousands of years.

No they are not, their prey may be, so sometimes they follow the migrationary paths of other animals. Humans though are territorial. When anthropologists talk of 'human migrations' they mean mass movements. Those mass movements, we are finding, are usually precipitated by changes in their usual and preferred environment which led to scarcity of food. Which is, presumably, why we developed tracking abilities, so we could find where the animals were going on those occasions when they didn't return due to those environmental changes.

Originally posted by KilgoreTrout

Originally posted by Aeons
reply to post by deanGI5

 

Humans are migratory, and have been for hundreds of thousands of years.

No they are not, their prey may be, so sometimes they follow the migrationary paths of other animals. Humans though are territorial. When anthropologists talk of 'human migrations' they mean mass movements. Those mass movements, we are finding, are usually precipitated by changes in their usual and preferred environment which led to scarcity of food. Which is, presumably, why we developed tracking abilities, so we could find where the animals were going on those occasions when they didn't return due to those environmental changes.

You clearly have never been to Vancouver and Sydney Australia. Humans are migratory and go where the resources are just like animals.

Originally posted by Shirak
You clearly have never been to Vancouver and Sydney Australia. Humans are migratory and go where the resources are just like animals.

Those people are told where the resources are. 'Animals' know. The animals lead and humans follow. Why else would we have taken the trouble to develop tracking skills? Or at one time directed an entire empire by studying the habits of birds?

Most mass migrations, certainly in modern times, like those of the Irish following the famine, like those of the Highland clearances, are not 'natural' but man-made and have generally involved some promise of a better life, not merely a chance of survival, those who wish to survive, generally do not need economic incentives to 'migrate'. Refugees do not become so because of an inner 'drive' but because they are driven. We follow or we flee. Generally.

This is just like the "toe" bones that show up in whale fins, vestiges of something from the distant past that have no use or relevance for humans in the current era. Humans learned to figure out where they were from looking at the Sun or the stars a long, long time ago, and have been doing that very same thing ever since. It's kind of interesting, and maybe we use it at some subconcious level, that we can't fathom right now, but, interesting none the less. Now, if it some thing that is NOT old, but something that is just starting to occur, that could have some pretty interesting implications! (Precursory evolutionary reaction to a potential pole shift maybe?)

Originally posted by CosmosKid
This is just like the "toe" bones that show up in whale fins, vestiges of something from the distant past that have no use or relevance for humans in the current era. Humans learned to figure out where they were from looking at the Sun or the stars a long, long time ago, and have been doing that very same thing ever since. It's kind of interesting, and maybe we use it at some subconcious level, that we can't fathom right now, but, interesting none the less. Now, if it some thing that is NOT old, but something that is just starting to occur, that could have some pretty interesting implications! (Precursory evolutionary reaction to a potential pole shift maybe?)

The problem is that we don't read the stars anymore, or rather we rely on technology to do the calculations for us, these calculators are recalibrated from time to time to take into account shifts and the such like, but for the most part we, the average person, has no understanding of the natural indicators of impending change and are reliant on others to notify us of those changes, if they deem fit to do so.