Magnetoreception in animals

Arunn at nOnoscience has a very interesting post about magnetoreception in animals. He begins his post with a cat story:

You step out of the house on an important errand, and a cat crosses your path; you (are made to) promptly stop, turn around and get back into home. You wait for sufficient time inside your home, drinking a cup of water before some one elderly checks the road and prompts when everything is auspicious again for you to get back on the road.

The “reasons” for considering cat crossing your path as a bad omen are many, with new ones given on the spur everyday. Let me give here the “scientific” one given to me some years back. It goes like this: Cats sense magnetic fields and since they do, they should be magnetic or at least capable of influencing magnetic fields. So, when they cross in front of you, cats influence the local geomagnetic field, which in turn manifest as a bad omen for you.

Then goes on to describe some interesting sensory biology research. And, ends with the good news, namely, unless the cat is moving real fast, you are in good shape

Assuming that cats possess such electroreceptive organs (which is yet to be established) like sharks with similar electric thresholds (highly unlikely) and their 2 miles/hour travel speed, cats crossing my path should do so at about a meter per second.

An interesting piece; take a look!

Tags: cats, magentoreception, senosry biology