MAGNETIC RESPONSE OF AN ORGANISM AND ITS LUNAR RELATIONSHIPS

Abstract

The direction and pattern of distribution of snails, Nassarius obsoleta, emerging from a straight, south-directed corridor into a constant symmetrical field displayed lunar-day and synodic-monthly periodisms. The snail''s mean path turned slightly to the right near moonrise, and then increasingly to the left, to a maximum at lunar nadir. Response to experimental magnetic fields of about 1.5 gausses showed the character of the magnetic response to vary with time of lunar day. The increased field strength induced the snails to do more strongly whatever was characteristic of that time of lunar-day in the earth''s field alone. The magnet, therefore, effected maximum right-turning about moonrise, and maximum left-turning at lunar nadir. There was a synodic monthly rhythm of mean daily response to the weak experimental magnetic fields, maximum right-turning in the daytime occurring the day before new moons and full moons, and maximum left-turning the day before each of the moon''s quarters. The strength of response to a bar magnet exhibited also a significant correlation with barometric pressure changes, suggesting strongly some relationship to previously reported, pressure-correlated cell-oxidative changes in the snails and other organisms even when sealed in constant pressure.