A study tried to protect fruit flies from the Earth’s magnetic field to find if it made a difference to their longevity
An invisible magnetic force is making some of us age quicker, a top science boff has claimed.
Scientists from the University of Nottingham tried to protect fruit flies from Earth’s magnetic field to see if it made a difference to their longevity. Incredibly, the researchers found the protected flies lived a whopping 20% longer than the unprotected.
Now science boffs have said they believe this theory would also apply to humans, but added the study probably wouldn’t change much as escaping its effects is not as simple as stepping indoors because the Earth’s magnetic field passes through buildings – and through our bodies.
“We live our entire lives within the Earth’s magnetic field,” said Prof Lisa Chakrabart, who co-led the study.
“It passes through our bodies, our cells and every living organism on the planet, yet we know surprisingly little about whether and how this invisible force affects the way our cells work.”
Researchers had two different groups of fruit flies. One group they allowed to roam in a contained space outside and the other they kept inside a nickel iron box that blocked almost all of the earth’s magnetic field.
Because previous research suggested magnetic fields can affect mitochondria – the tiny structures that provide cells with energy – they tested two types of fly: healthy ones, and others with a faulty gene called Pink1, which causes their mitochondria to malfunction.
The results found that the Pink1 flies lived around 20% longer inside the shield, although their ability to move and climb declined. Healthy flies, meanwhile, became better climbers when shielded from the Earth’s magnetic field, but did not live longer.
The findings suggest the Earth’s magnetic field could play a role in ageing, but its effects may depend on the health of an organism’s mitochondria and researchers have said now that much more work is needed to establish whether anything similar happens in humans.
The Earth’s magnetic field is generated largely by molten iron moving around in the planet’s outer core. Scientists already know that some animals, including migratory birds, can detect the Earth’s magnetic field and use it to navigate. But more work is needed, they say, to work out its full effects.
“Research in this area is sparse, focusing mainly on how migrating animals sense magnetic fields,” said doctoral candidate Jacob Reed, a co-author of the study. “Yet we still know very little about why all living organisms need or don’t need a magnetic field to function normally in the first place.”