Biomagnetism
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Biomagnetism
Biomagnetism is the phenomenon of magnetic fields ''produced'' by living organisms; it is a subset of bioelectromagnetism. In contrast, organisms' use of magnetism in navigation is magnetoception and the study of the magnetic fields' ''effects'' on organisms is '' magnetobiology''. (The word biomagnetism has also been used loosely to include magnetobiology, further encompassing almost any combination of the words magnetism, cosmology, and biology, such as "magnetoastrobiology".) The origin of the word biomagnetism is unclear, but seems to have appeared several hundred years ago, linked to the expression "animal magnetism". The present scientific definition took form in the 1970s, when an increasing number of researchers began to measure the magnetic fields produced by the human body. The first valid measurement was actually made in 1963, but the field of research began to expand only after a low-noise technique was developed in 1970.{{cite journal , last1=Cohen , first1=David , ...
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Bioelectromagnetics
Bioelectromagnetics, also known as bioelectromagnetism, is the study of the interaction between electromagnetic fields and biological entities. Areas of study include electromagnetic fields produced by living cells, tissues or organisms, the effects of man-made sources of electromagnetic fields like mobile phones, and the application of electromagnetic radiation toward therapies for the treatment of various conditions. Biological phenomena Bioelectromagnetism is studied primarily through the techniques of electrophysiology. In the late eighteenth century, the Italian physician and physicist Luigi Galvani first recorded the phenomenon while dissecting a frog at a table where he had been conducting experiments with static electricity. Galvani coined the term ''animal electricity'' to describe the phenomenon, while contemporaries labeled it galvanism. Galvani and contemporaries regarded muscle activation as resulting from an electrical fluid or substance in the nerves. Sh ...
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Bioelectromagnetism
Bioelectromagnetics, also known as bioelectromagnetism, is the study of the interaction between electromagnetic fields and biological entities. Areas of study include electromagnetic fields produced by living cells, tissues or organisms, the effects of man-made sources of electromagnetic fields like mobile phones, and the application of electromagnetic radiation toward therapies for the treatment of various conditions. Biological phenomena Bioelectromagnetism is studied primarily through the techniques of electrophysiology. In the late eighteenth century, the Italian physician and physicist Luigi Galvani first recorded the phenomenon while dissecting a frog at a table where he had been conducting experiments with static electricity. Galvani coined the term ''animal electricity'' to describe the phenomenon, while contemporaries labeled it galvanism. Galvani and contemporaries regarded muscle activation as resulting from an electrical fluid or substance in the nerves. Shor ...
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Magnetomyography
Magnetomyography (MMG) is a technique for mapping muscle activity by recording magnetic fields produced by electrical currents occurring naturally in the muscles, using arrays of SQUIDs (superconducting quantum interference devices). It has a better capability than electromyography for detecting slow or direct currents. The magnitude of the MMG signal is in the scale of pico (10−12) to femto (10−15) Tesla (T). Miniaturizing MMG offers a prospect to modernize the bulky SQUID to wearable miniaturized magnetic sensors. Two key drivers for the development of the MMG method: 1) poor spatial resolution of the EMG signals when recorded non-invasively on the skin where state-of-the-art EMG measurements are even using needle recording probes, which is possible to accurately assess muscle activity but painful and limited to tiny areas with poor spatial sampling points; 2) poor biocompatibility of the implantable EMG sensors due to the metal-tissue interface. The MMG sensors have the poten ...
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Magnetoencephalography
Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is a functional neuroimaging technique for mapping brain activity by recording magnetic fields produced by electrical currents occurring naturally in the brain, using very sensitive magnetometers. Arrays of SQUIDs (superconducting quantum interference devices) are currently the most common magnetometer, while the SERF (spin exchange relaxation-free) magnetometer is being investigated for future machines. Applications of MEG include basic research into perceptual and cognitive brain processes, localizing regions affected by pathology before surgical removal, determining the function of various parts of the brain, and neurofeedback. This can be applied in a clinical setting to find locations of abnormalities as well as in an experimental setting to simply measure brain activity. History MEG signals were first measured by University of Illinois physicist David Cohen in 1968, before the availability of the SQUID, using a copper induction coil as the ...
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Magnetocardiography
Magnetocardiography (MCG) is a technique to measure the magnetic fields produced by electrical currents in the heart using extremely sensitive devices such as the superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID). If the magnetic field is measured using a multichannel device, a map of the magnetic field is obtained over the chest; from such a map, using mathematical algorithms that take into account the conductivity structure of the torso, it is possible to locate the source of the activity. For example, sources of abnormal rhythms or arrhythmia may be located using MCG. History The first MCG measurements were made by Baule and McFee using two large coils placed over the chest, connected in opposition to cancel out the relatively large magnetic background. Heart signals were indeed seen, but were very noisy. The next development was by David Cohen, who used a magnetically shielded room to reduce the background, and a smaller coil with better electronics; the heart signals ...
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Human Magnetism
Human magnetism is a popular name for an alleged ability of some people to attract objects to their skin. People alleged to have such an ability are often called human magnets. Although metal objects are the most popular, some are also alleged to be able to stick other types of materials, such as glass, porcelain, wood or plastic as well as metals with no ferromagnetic properties such as brass and aluminium. However, none of the recorded claims of human magnetism corresponds with the physics of magnetism. Selected claimed human magnets * Aurel Răileanu from Romania, also known as "Mr. Magnet"; is said to be the strongest human magnet * Etibar Elchyev from Georgia, Guinness World Record holder for most spoons on a human body * Ivan Stoiljkovic, a boy from Croatia * Liew Thow Lin, known as Mr. Magnetic Man *Dalibor Jablanović from Serbia, Guinness World Record holder for most spoons on a human face *Arun Raikar from India, who could lift of metal upon his body * Agnė Kuli ...
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Bioelectrochemistry
Bioelectrochemistry is a branch of electrochemistry and biophysical chemistry concerned with electrophysiological topics like cell electron-proton transport, cell membrane potentials and electrode reactions of redox enzymes. History The beginnings of bioelectrochemistry, as well as those of electrochemistry, are closely related to physiology through the works of Luigi Galvani and then Alessandro Volta. The first modern work in this field is considered that of the German physiologist Julius Bernstein (1902) concerning the source of biopotentials due to different ion concentration through the cell's membrane. The domain of bioelectrochemistry has grown considerably over the past century, maintaining the close connections to various medical and biological and engineering disciplines like electrophysiology, biomedical engineering, and enzyme kinetics. The achievements in this field have been awarded several Nobel prizes for Physiology or Medicine. Among prominent electrochemists wh ...
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John Wikswo
John Peter Wikswo, Jr. (born October 6, 1949) is a biological physicist at Vanderbilt University. He was born in Lynchburg, Virginia, United States. Wikswo is noted for his work on biomagnetism and cardiac electrophysiology. Graduate school In the 1970s, Wikswo was a graduate student at Stanford University, where he worked under physicist William M. Fairbank, studying magnetocardiography. Biomagnetism In 1977 he became an assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Vanderbilt University, where he set up a laboratory to study living state physics. In 1980, he made the first measurement of the magnetic field of an isolated nerve, by threading the a frog sciatic nerve through a wire-wound, ferrite-core toroid and detecting the induced current using a SQUID magnetometer. At the same time, Wikswo and Ken Swinney calculated the magnetic field of a nerve axon. This work was followed a few years later by the first detailed comparison of the measured a ...
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David Cohen (physicist)
David Cohen made many of the first pioneering measurements in the area of biomagnetism (magnetic fields produced by the body), although he was initially trained as a nuclear physicist. Early life and education Cohen was born of immigrant parents in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He was raised there and earned a B.A. degree at the University of Manitoba. Then, he attended graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley, where he gained a Ph.D. in experimental nuclear physics. Career Working in this area, and using large magnets, he became interested in the other extreme; this was the measurement of very weak magnetic fields, which for example might be produced by the weak natural currents in the human body. In 1963, he proposed a method using a magnetically shielded room to keep out external magnetic disturbances, as in radiation shielding in nuclear experiments. At that time others reported the first biomagnetic measurement, where the MCG (''magnetocardiogram'', the magneti ...
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Magnetoencephalogram
Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is a functional neuroimaging technique for mapping brain activity by recording magnetic fields produced by electrical currents occurring naturally in the brain, using very sensitive magnetometers. Arrays of SQUIDs (superconducting quantum interference devices) are currently the most common magnetometer, while the SERF (spin exchange relaxation-free) magnetometer is being investigated for future machines. Applications of MEG include basic research into perceptual and cognitive brain processes, localizing regions affected by pathology before surgical removal, determining the function of various parts of the brain, and neurofeedback. This can be applied in a clinical setting to find locations of abnormalities as well as in an experimental setting to simply measure brain activity. History MEG signals were first measured by University of Illinois physicist David Cohen in 1968, before the availability of the SQUID, using a copper induction coil as ...
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Animal Magnetism
Animal magnetism, also known as mesmerism, was a protoscientific theory developed by German doctor Franz Mesmer in the 18th century in relation to what he claimed to be an invisible natural force (''Lebensmagnetismus'') possessed by all living things, including humans, animals, and vegetables. He claimed that the force could have physical effects, including healing. He tried persistently, without success, to achieve a wider scientific recognition of his ideas.Wolfart, Karl Christian; Friedrich Anton Mesmer. ''Mesmerismus: Oder, System der Wechselwirkungen, Theorie und Anwendung des thierischen Magnetismus als die allgemeine Heilkunde zur Erhaltung des Menschen'' (in German, facsimile of the 1811 edition). Cambridge University Press, 2011. . Foreword. The vitalist theory attracted numerous followers in Europe and the United States and was popular into the 19th century. Practitioners were often known as magnetizers rather than mesmerists. It had an important influence in medici ...
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Magnetobiology
Magnetobiology is the study of biological effects of mainly weak static and low-frequency magnetic fields, which do not cause heating of tissues. Magnetobiological effects have unique features that obviously distinguish them from thermal effects; often they are observed for alternating magnetic fields just in separate frequency and amplitude intervals. Also, they are dependent of simultaneously present static magnetic or electric fields and their polarization. Magnetobiology is a subset of bioelectromagnetics. Bioelectromagnetism and biomagnetism are the study of the production of electromagnetic and magnetic fields by biological organisms. The sensing of magnetic fields by organisms is known as magnetoreception. Biological effects of weak low frequency magnetic fields, less than about 0.1 millitesla (or 1 Gauss) and 100 Hz correspondingly, constitutes a physics problem. The effects look paradoxical, for the energy quantum of these electromagnetic fields is by many order ...
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