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333 pages

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Human Navigation and Magnetoreception, first published in 1989, was written to draw a line under an academic feud that had enlivened much of the 1980s. Now, thirty years on, a new generation of researchers, students and journalists have voiced a need for the book's contents to be made generally available again - and this digital 30th Anniversary edition (with a new Preface by the author) is the result.Like all mammals, early humans needed to find their way from place to place without becoming lost. For many, the penalty for poor navigation was death. Yet through most of humankind's evolutionary history the only map was in the head and the only compasses in the world around. These were provided by the sun, moon and stars - and something else. In 1980, research at Manchester University, England, led to the claim in the journal Science that during 'natural' navigation humans can use an innate subconscious sense of magnetism. The claim was novel - to some scientists unjustified - and in the years that followed triggered intense and often bitter argument as experiments were criticised, improved, repeated and extended. Even thirty years after first publication, Human Navigation and Magnetoreception remains the most complete book ever written on the subject of the human magnetic sense. It describes over a decade of research by not only the author and his team at Manchester but also by his various critics and others around the world. Although the experiments began on small groups of British students, the studies eventually extended to include many ages and nationalities, including specialist groups such as orienteers, nudists, trans-equatorial travellers, dyslexics and the blind. By the time the Manchester and other studies ended, thousands of people worldwide had taken part. Other mammals - horses and mice - had also been studied and the results for all were exciting. They were also controversial, and the arguments they triggered vitriolic. Aimed primarily but not only at scientists, the book presents detailed experimental evidence in support of its conclusions. It demonstrates how the magnetic sense is used alongside sun and star compasses in natural explorations. It also demonstrates a close link between magnetoreception and sight and makes inferences for the nature of the magnetic sensor itself. Within the book's pages, all of the major points of scientific contention are discussed openly and objectively. The result is a fascinating account of not only a little-researched human sense but also of the hurdles that some new ideas have to clear before they can be accepted.

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Sciences et techniques

Human biology

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Publié par	Hard Nut Books Ltd
Date de parution	12 octobre 2017
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9788469758953
Langue	English

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Human Navigation andMagnetoreception
30 th anniversary edition
( With a newPreface by the author )
Robin Baker
HUMAN NAVIGATION AND MAGNETORECEPTION
First published inEnglish in 1989
byManchester University Press, Manchester, UK
Digital editionpublished by
HARDNUT books Ltd, London, 2017

Email: hardnutbooks@gmail.com
ISBN978-84-697-5895-3
Copyright © RobinBaker, 1989, 2017
www.robin-baker.com
RobinBaker has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988to be identified as the author of this work.
RobinBaker is represented by:
The Susijn Agency Ltd
820, Harrow Road,London, NW10 5JU, UK
www.thesusijnagency.com
Cover
Hard Nut Films Ltd.,London
About the Author
Born in Wiltshire, England, in 1944, RobinBaker grew up in the small village of Manningford Bruce in the Vale of Pewsey.After obtaining a First Class Honours degree in Zoology (1965), then a PhD, atthe University of Bristol (1968), he lectured in Zoology for over 25 years atthe Universities of first Newcastle-upon-Tyne and then Manchester. AtManchester he was Reader in Zoology in the School of Biological Sciences from1981-1996. In 1996 he left academic life to concentrate on his career inwriting and broadcasting. A best-selling author in the field of sexual biology,his books (6 academic, 4 popular science, and 3 novels) have been translatedinto 28 different languages. He has also published around 100 scientific papersand articles and his work and ideas on the evolution of human behaviour havebeen featured in many radio and television programmes around the world. Since2002 he has lived in the foothills of the Spanish Sierras with his partner andtheir family. He has six children and three grandchildren.
Alsoby Robin Baker
Academic
The Evolutionary Ecology of AnimalMigration
Human Navigation and the Sixth Sense
Migration
Bird Navigation
Human Sperm Competition
Popular Science
Sperm Wars
Baby Wars
Sex in the Future
Fragile Science
Fiction
Primal
Caballito
The Hitchhiker’s Child
For further details: www.robin-baker.com/books/
Dedication
To Thomas, Howard and David
for tolerating a fatherwho puts magnets on people’s heads *
&
in turn
To Nathanial, Amelia and Romany
for tolerating one who works on penes, testes and sperm
* Bookseller magazine’s ‘Best Dedication of 1989.’
Table of Contents
Human Navigation and Magnetoreception
About the Author
Also by Robin Baker
Dedication
Preface to the 30 th Anniversary Edition
Original (1989) preface andacknowledgements
1. Introduction
2. Human navigation: the value ofmagnetoreception
2.1. Familiar areas and home ranges
2.2. Exploration
2.3. Navigation
2.3.1. Navigation as part ofexploration
2.3.2. Route-based and location-basednavigation
2.4. Magnetoreception
2.4.1. A role in navigation
2.4.2. Integration with other cues
2.5. Summary
3. The search for the magnetoreceptor
3.1. Hypotheses of magnetoreception
3.1.1. Whole-body hypotheses
3.1.2. Hypotheses based onmodifications of other sense organs
3.1.3. A discrete and separatemagnetoreceptor: the magnetite hypothesis
3.2. Anatomical investigations
3.2.1. The search for magnetite
3.2.2. The sinal magnetite hypothesis
3.3. From magnetoreceptor to brain
3.4. Storage of spatial information:a mental map
3.5. Summary
4. Techniques for experiment andanalysis
4.1. Major types of experiment onhuman navigation
4.1.1. Walkabout experiments
4.1.2. Bus experiments
4.1.3. Chair experiments
4.2. Statistical analysis ofestimates of direction and distance
4.2.1. Estimates of direction:circular statistics
4.2.2. Estimates of distance
4.2.3. Statistical problems
4.2.4. The statistics ofreplicability
4.3. Measuring levels of ability
4.3.1. Potential causes of spuriouslevels of performance
4.3.2. Background data:questionnaires
4.4. Testing for the role ofmagnetoreception
4.4.1. Types of magnetic treatment
4.4.2. Double-blind protocol
4.4.3. Interpretation of results
4.5. Summary
5. Levels of ability to judge compassdirection and to navigate
5.1. General ability to discriminatebetween geographical directions
5.1.1. Compass orientation whensighted
5.1.2. Compass orientation whenblindfolded
5.1.3. Discussion
5.2. Accuracy of map-building andnavigation
5.2.1. Navigation while sighted
5.2.2. Navigation while blindfolded
5.3. Variation in ability
5.3.1. Influence of distance andcomplexity of the outward journey
5.3.2. Relative performance of malesand females
5.3.3. Variation in ability with age
5.3.4. Influence of cloud cover
5.3.5. Influence of height of sun aboveor below the horizon
5.3.6. Influence of time of day
5.3.7. Influence of bed alignment
5.4. Summary
6. The influence of magnets
6.1. Large electromagnetic coils
6.1.1. Judgement of geographicaldirection
6.1.2. Map-building and navigation
6.2. Electromagnetic coils on helmets
6.2.1. Judgement of geographicaldirection
6.2.2. Map-building and navigation
6.3. Bar magnets on the head
6.3.1. Judgement of geographicaldirection
6.3.2. Map-building and navigation
6.3.3. Polarity of magnets and normalbed orientation of subjects
6.3.4. Conclusions
6.4. Magnetic pretreatment:manipulating the magnetoreceptor
6.4.1. Judgement of compassdirection: pilot study
6.4.2. Judgement of compassdirection: formal experiments
6.4.3. Map-building and navigation
6.4.4. Magnet strength
6.5. Summary
6.5.1. Judgement of compass direction
6.5.2. Map-building and navigation
7. The role of magnetoreception
7.1. Interactive roles ofmagnetoreception and vision
7.1.1. The role of magnetoreceptionwhen blindfolded and sighted
7.1.2. The role of magnetoreceptionat night
7.1.3. The role of magnetoreceptionby day: overcast and sunny skies
7.1.4. The conscious and subconsciousroles of magnetoreception
7.2. The use of magnetoreception bymales and females
7.2.1. Chair experiments
7.2.2. Integration of visual andmagnetic information
7.3. The use of magnetoreception atdifferent ages
7.4. General discussion
7.4.1. Judgement of compass direction
7.4.2. Map-building and navigation
7.5. Summary
8. The physiology of magnetoreception
8.1. Location of the magnetoreceptor
8.1.1. The Cheshire nudist experiment
8.1.2. Localised magneticmanipulation
8.1.3. The eyes
8.1.4. The ethmoid/sphenoid sinuscomplex
8.1.5. Conclusions
8.2. How the geomagnetic field is‘read’
8.2.1. Features of the geomagneticfield
8.2.2. The avian compass: inclinationor polarity?
8.2.3. The human compass: inclinationor polarity?
8.2.4. What is read: orientationwithin the field or changes in orientation?
8.2.5. How the field is read: ahypothesis
8.3. The influence of magnets
8.3.1. The aftereffect
8.3.2. The aftereffect and themagnetite hypothesis
8.3.3. A case against the magnetitehypothesis
8.3.4. Discussion
8.4. Clinical considerations
8.4.1. Genetic deficiencies in magnetoreception
8.4.2. Infections of themagnetoreception system
8.4.3. Self-and environmentallyinduced interference with magnetoreception
8.5. Summary
9. The next eight years
References
Figures
Tables
Original (1989) Subject Index
Preface to the 30 th Anniversary Edition
As I write this Preface, it is 41 years, almost to the day(11 October 1976), since I herded eight students from the University ofManchester, UK, into the back of a small van, blindfolded them, drove them intothe Cheshire countryside, and asked them to point towards the University. Theevent was the first of what evolved to become known as the ‘ManchesterExperiments’: a series of tests designed to measure how the natural ability of humansto orientate and navigate during exploration compared with the ability of otheranimals. Over the next decade, thousands of people from all over the worldwould take part in the experiments spawned by this prototype.
Three years after this initial test the first manipulationsinvolving magnets as well as blindfolds were carried out. The results werepublished in 1980 in the journal Science [1] and in effect twohypotheses were advanced for further testing: (1) humans have some non-visualability that they can use to help solve problems of orientation and navigation;and (2) this non-visual ability is based, at least in part, onmagnetoreception. This publication triggered an invigorating air of hostilitythat at times over the next decade seemed to manifest as a series oftrans-global, trans-Pennine, and particularly trans-Atlantic animosities. Mostoften, this hostility simply led to a commendably heightened scrutiny ofexperimental protocol and statistical analysis in a zealous search for flaws(e.g., [2] ). On occasion, it also descended into personal defamation(see [3] ) that did little credit to those concerned.
Each science-based criticism of the Manchester Experimentswas acknowledged and addressed – either willingly accommodated or forcefully rebuffed(see Chapter 4). Strengthened by the process, the experimental evidence insupport of both of the initial hypotheses steadily mounted as the decadeprogressed. Perhaps most importantly, in 1987, I published a peer-reviewedpaper [4] in the journal Animal Behaviour that finally settledthe once-thorny problem of replication by others. The article showed that,despite the multiple and well-publicised protestations of failure, when allattempts at replications by others were treated as a whole their support forthe Manchester experiments was P < 0.001 for non-visual ability tonavigate and P < 0.005 for magnetoreception. Subsequent papers byothers, especially by Gai Murphy [5] and to a much smaller degree byMary Campion [6] , served to reinforce the point still further.
As the decade entered its final quarter little of theManchester work was still being actively opposed on scientific grounds and thetime seemed right for a book to draw the whole subject together. It was also anopportunity to dem