Researchers with the European Space Agency (ESA) are reporting that a peculiar oddity in the Earth’s magnetic field known as the South Atlantic Magnetic Anomaly is weakening faster than the rest of the planet’s magnetic field, and may well be showing signs of splitting into two distinct regions. First discoveredread more
Although the ability to sense magnetic fields has been a long-established fact for a multitude of animal species, experiments searching for magnetoreceptive capabilities in humans have come up empty-handed. A new study may change our view on this seeming disability, having found evidence that our brains register changes in theread more
In the music of the universe, one of the most important sounds to us here on Earth is the song the Sun sings: every system has a resonance, and especially large and energetic ones like the Sun produce sounds that rebound back and forth though its vast sphere. These sound waves can be studied to glean information about the interior workings of our spheres that we would otherwise not be able to access, and recent changes in the Sun’s music has researchers that pay attention to this tune concerned.
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It has long been recognised that birds use the Earth’s magnetic field (MF) for navigational purposes, but a recent study published in Frontiers in Zoology has uncovered a rather more unexpected animal response to this enigmatic MF energy.
It transpires that, when they stoop to poop, dogs prefer to align their bodies to the north-south axis of the Earth as signified by the geomagnetic field.
What the study did not manage to determine was why dogs choose to do this, but after observing 70 dogs of different 37 breeds 1,893 times during defecation, the scientists were able to confirm with some confidence that "dogs preferred to excrete with the body being aligned along the North-south axis under calm MF conditions." read more