Do human's have manetite in the body, and if so, are we affected by the Earth's magnetic energy?

Question

On a smaller scale...the way that birds fly south for the winter, due to their "built in compass" or manetite. Can human's tap into that energy and if so, can we reverse the polarities and what possibilities could we attain?

Answer 1

I've a friend who studies zoology in Aberdeen, Scotland, who says differently than every answer so far. He said that in human tests they do for each class every year, you find that people have a general sense of direction even when blindfolded in a dark room. But tape a magnet to their forehead and all the positive correlations go right out the window.
I do not know the technical reason for these results, but I've read that humans do have a bit of nickel in their nose which might affect some of us in feeling magnetic fields.

Answer 2

Just about all of the iron in the human body is tied up in the production of hemoglobin, used for transporting oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body and moving the waste carbon dioxide back to the lungs. In this form, the iron has no special noteworthy response to static magnetic fields.

By the way, the polarity of the earth's magnetic field reverses at irregular intervals an average of five times every million years. The earth's magnetic field has retained its present polarity for the past 780,000 years, but if geomagnetic trends continue, the next reversal will occur in a thousand years or so.

Answer 3

No, we are not affected by magnetic energy. The amount of iron in all of a human body is barely enough to make a tiny screw for a swiss watch. The strength of Earth's magnetic field is about 30 mkT, which is also very small.

Answer 4

I'm guessing you mean magnetite, not manetite. Magnetite is a ferromagnetic mineral with chemical formula Fe3O4. Although one can find manetite listed on the web, close scrutiny finds that word is just a misspelling of magnetite.

I've not seen magnetite listed as a component of the human body. But the human body is full of iron, which can be attracted by strong magnets. The MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) tool used to see soft tissue inside the body uses that effect.

Answer 5

No, we do not have manetite or magnatite or a buit-in compass. No, we are not directly affected by Earth's magnetic field. Reverse what polarities?

People are indirectly affected by Earth's field in many ways, involving RF communication, compasses, and solar energy.

Answer 6

I've never seen any evidence that humans can detect magnetostatic fields.

Birds, by the way, don't care so much about polarity. They tell their lattitude by the angle between the B-field and horizontal. So they don't know the difference between north and south, but they know toward-the-pole or toward-the-equator. This is all you really want to know anyway if you want to know which way to go for seasonal migration.