In most vertebrates and invertebrates, there is cellular electrical activity, often flowing through the nervous system, with a small frequency range of 5 to 45 Hertz. Now, a new study details how this extremely low frequency (ELF) matches in resonance with natural vibrations caused by lightning strikes in the atmosphere.
“About 20 years ago, we began to discover that many biological systems, from simple organisms like zooplankton in the ocean to our brains, have electrical activity at exactly the same frequency as the global activity of electrical rays,” says Colin Price, author. principal of the new study and researcher at the Porter School of Environment and Earth Sciences at Tel Aviv University, Israel. “We think that on evolutionary scales, for billions of years, life forms perhaps used what nature gave them to somehow synchronize and adapt to those frequencies.”
Schumann resonance
Around the planet, lightning strikes the earth about 50 to 100 times per second. These bumps create low-frequency waves of electromagnetic energy that resonates in the atmosphere. Known as Schumann resonances, these ELF waves have enveloped the planet for billions of years, since Earth had an atmosphere.
And while the strongest resonances have a frequency close to 8 Hz, several others occur between 3 and 60 Hz. Nowadays, they can be measured anywhere that is electrically quiet — being understood as quiet areas far from modern power lines. electrical—.
8 Hertz
The new theory proposes that the primordial cells somehow synchronized their electrical activity with these natural atmospheric resonances, particularly those close to 8 Hz. This type of synchronization is common, in fact, our body synchronizes its circadian rhythm to days and seasons; and many species navigate following the Earth’s magnetic field.
Credit: Andrii Vodolazhskyis
“Evolution makes the most of it,” says Michael Levin, a biologist at Tufts University in Massachusetts, who was not part of the new research. “When living things don’t have access to the magnetic field, they don’t develop well.”
Relaxation state
But not all life vibrates exactly on the Schumann resonance. The researchers suggest that while primeval life was synchronized at 8 Hz, cellular activity in animals slowly drifted to other frequencies as they evolved, with different frequencies being used for various types of brain activity. For example, specific frequencies in the waves of the human brain have been related to mental states such as alertness and sleep. The Schumann resonance, meanwhile, is close to the frequencies of deep states of relaxation, suggesting that primordial life may have had a similar state.
While there are possibilities that the current research could lead to medical applications, it is highly unlikely that this resonance could be exploited for harmful applications, the study authors point out. “Waves are a natural state that constantly surrounds us,” they say.
“We live in these fields, we are adapted to them, we have evolved with them, and perhaps they have affected our evolution,” adds Price. “But I don’t think these fields directly affect us today. Otherwise, every time there is a thunderstorm above us, we would notice it.”
The researchers have not yet identified how the ray resonance and biological electrical activity could be synchronized, but speculate that the lightning strike may have affected the transfer of calcium ions between cells, which is how Most electrical activity occurs in animals.
The study has been published in the journal International Journal of Biometeorology.
Source: Live Science
