Implant gives a magnetic touch

Freaky, possibly stupid, but cool.

Many animals have an innate magnetic sense; bees, pigeons, sharks, turtles. The magnetic sense allows these animals to detect the alignment of the Earth’s magnetic field. With this internal compass, these animals are able to travel extreme distances from a human perspective.

An article recently published in Wired describes the exploits of an eclectic group of “body-mod artists” and a graduate student with a background in neuroscience. When freaky art meets geeky science, much craziness ensures!

Jarrell and Haworth (body-mod artists) and Huffman (the graduate student) decided to devise an implant that would give Huffman the ability to detect electromagnetic fields. A small rare earth magnet encased in silicone was implanted into the fingertip of Huffman’s ring finger.

The result? Says Huffman:

“I would circle my finger with a strong magnet and feel the one in my finger spin. In time, bits of my laptop became familiar as tingles and buzzes. Every so often I would pass near something and get an unexpected vibration. Live phone pairs on the sides of houses sometimes startled me.”

Although this is absolutely fascinating from a neuroscience point of view, the crazy part is that they couldn’t get someone with even an inkling of medical training involved. The eventual failure of the implant is proof. By using low grade silicone, it was eventually broken down by the body. Infection around the implant ensured. An attempt to extract the implant failed, shattering the magnet in the process; though interestingly enough, it reassembled in situ leading to a reconstitution of the “magnetic sense”.

Although this “fringe” of art and science can barely be called either art or science, it pushes the envelope of human experience. Modern technology has allowed humans to have extraordinary sense and abilities. Laser corrective surgery can already regularly deliver better than 6/6 or 20/20 vision. An electromagnetic sense would probably be extremely useful in a world dominated by electronic devices.

From: Wired News