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Comment by Flashtoo | Hacker News Reader

> Some emerging research suggests Earth’s magnetism matters, as well. Being barefoot on the ground versus 30 stories high in a downtown skyscraper puts you in a completely different magnetic environment.

Really? My instinctive reaction to this statement is that it's quackery. Would be very interested to see headlines appear about this if it's true.

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It's definitely quackery. There's way more "natural" magnetic variation between two different cities than between a ground floor apartment and a 30th floor apartment (see magnetic declination maps), and that's even before you get into the way-more-powerful magnetic fields generated or present in a home.

You can write pretty much anything you want after “Some emerging research suggests”

This is called "grounding" or "earthing" and Wikipedia doesn't pull punches in dismissing it [0]. You can buy grounding wires for your mattress or copper rivets for your shoes.

From my tissue engineering class in undergrad my 2 cents is this is maybe 95% supplements quackery and 5% genuine mystery. You can find papers that claim EM fields have cellular interactions [1]. I don't think serious scientists will touch conventional earthing, though.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_medicine#Earthing

[1]: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38068954/

Hilariously, the wikipedia page suggests that the research looks less like it's "emerging" and more like it's "submerging".

More evidence this may have been written by a pigeon...

People already live in different altitudes, ie with vastly different amounts of rock between themselves and the bits of the earth that produce her magnetic field.

So colour me skeptical of this claim as well.

And while I like going barefoot for other reasons, I don't think it makes much of a difference to the magnetic fields.

> People already live in different altitudes, ie with vastly different amounts of rock between themselves and the bits of the earth that produce her magnetic field.

It's not really the same thing. Construction and especially the high content of charged metal (whether it's power conduits or plain old frame) may make a considerable difference.

Do many people sleep in such tall buildings? Obviously they exist, but I can't think of any over-20 story residential building I've ever been in. Office space, sure, but not residential.

The amount of people who would regularly sleep in such a building is a minuscule fraction of the world population.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pinnacle@Duxton

Yes, like I said, these things exist. But I ask do significant populations of humans reside in the upper floors of such structures?

In absolute terms, yes. In relative terms, no.

What about flowing underground water when sleeping on the ground?

What about the metal frame of a bed?

You forgot to mention whether they slept near shakra-aligning crystals or not.

That may make a considerable difference.

And I may be a 10,000 year-old alien.

>I may be a 10,000 year-old alien.

That would be so disappointing, I've been picturing you as Mickey's assistant in Fantasia :)

Then again, maybe that checks?

I would not jump to such conclusions, I would assume is not fully known and needs to be further understood.

on the other side, do you know we have polarized and non-polarized cells? do you know they can be affected by electromagnetism?

this two things already establish the existence of a relationship and effects between them. If we then consider that cells mechanism work based on differential of electrical or chemical potentials, and that they continuously use that for their functions, reactions or environmental compensations well...

I just think they are related and we need to understand better.

just stumbled upon this

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49360307

even mechanical of course :)

Fascinating, but polarization is a red herring. Magnetism is famously the wildly-unreactive half of electromagnetism; copper is REALLY sensitive to electricity and REALLY insensitive to magnetism.

I agree ideas shouldn't be dismissed out-of-hand.

And Earth's magnetic field is extremely weak

There might be precedent for being able to detect changes in magnetic field

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/dogs-poop-in-alignment-...

but then again maybe not

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S15587...

Yeah, that first study was pure bunkum.

Some animals - migrating birds, notably - can detect magnetic fields. IIRC, sharks have close-range magnetic sensors in their gumlines.

But these are extremely rare and niche adaptations to difficult problems.

It's a creative innovation!

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