Sixth sense: Scientists have proved that humans really do have a sixth sense - that lets them detect magnetic fields.

It has long been known as ESP, Spider Sense, or the ability to see things before they happen.

But now scientists have proved that humans really do have a sixth sense - that lets them detect magnetic fields.

Tests have shown that mankind may have the same innatesense of Earth’s magnetic field that has long been proved to exist in animals.

By putting a protein from the human retinainto fruit flies, researchers noticed that the insect modified its flight path just as if its eye had not been altered.

This suggests that the 'sixth sense' does exist in humans but we might not be aware of it.

Animals use such sight to navigatelong distances during migration or, in the case of birds, to ‘see’ where they are going.

The complex tests involved examining the process by which light goes through a bird’s eye, which has intriguedthe scientific community for more than 30 years.

In the late 1970s, the physicist Klaus Schulten concluded that birds navigate by relying on geomagnetically sensitive biochemical reactions in their eyes.

Tests have shown that the special cells in the eye carry out this function using the protein cryptochrome.

Professor Reppert’s team used wild fruit flies and replaced their version of cryptochrome with the human equivalent then put them in a mazewith each wing wrapped in a metal coil.

They then sent a current through it so that the coil was magnetised in a way which mimicked Earth’s electromagnetic field.

The flies responded in exactly the same way as if they had their own cryptochrome, by either avoiding the magnetic fields or moving towards them if the researchers had placed sugar nearby.

The new study was published in the journal Nature Communications.

(Read by Nelly Min. Nelly Min is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)

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(Agencies)

一直以來，第六感也被稱為超感知覺、蜘蛛感應，也就是預知未來事物的能力。

但現在科學家已證實人類確實有第六感，正是這第六感讓人類能夠感應到磁場。

試驗表明，人類可能像其他動物一樣擁有能夠感知地球磁場的先天感應力，而動物的這一感應力在很久以前就被證實了。

通過將人類視網膜的一粒蛋白質植入果蠅的眼中，研究人員注意到，果蠅調整了它的飛行路線，就像眼睛沒有做過手腳一樣。

這表明，人類確實存在“第六感”，只是我們可能沒有意識到。

動物在長途遷徙過程中利用這一感應力給自己導航，鳥類則憑借這一感應力“看到”前方飛行的方向。

這些復雜的試驗包括觀察光進入鳥的眼睛的過程，科學界在這方面已經研究了30余年。

在20世紀70年代晚期，物理學家克勞斯 舒爾騰得出結論說，鳥類依靠眼睛內能夠感應地磁的生物化學反應來導航。

測試表明，眼睛內部某些特別的細胞在蛋白隱色素的作用下能夠實現這一功能。

里珀特教授的研究團隊把野生果蠅眼內的蛋白隱色素換成人類的蛋白隱色素，然后將果蠅放在一個迷宮中，每只翅膀都用金屬絲包裹起來。

然后他們將電流導入金屬絲，這樣金屬絲就有了磁性，就像地球的電磁場一樣。

果蠅做出的反應就像自己的蛋白隱色素沒被換過一樣，既能夠避開磁場，也能夠飛向研究人員放了糖的磁場附近。

這一新研究發表在《自然通訊》雜志上。

來源：中國日報   編輯：許銀娟