The Geomagnetic Field and Life Geomagnetobiology The Geomagnetic Field and Life Geomagnetobiology A.P. Dubrov Academy of Seiences of the USSR Translated from Russian by Frank L. Sindair Translation editor Frank A. Brown, Jr. Northwestern University Evanston, /llinois SPRINGER SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, LLC Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Dubrov, Aleksandr Petrovich. The geomagnetic field and life. Translation of Geomagnitnoe pole i zhizn'. Bibliography: p. 1. Magnetic fields- Physiological effect. 2. Life (Biology) 3.Magnetism, Terrestrial. I. TitleQP82.2.M3D813 574.1'91 78-1705 ISBN 978-1-4757-1612-2 ISBN 978-1-4757-1610-8 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-4757-1610-8 The original Russian text, published by Gidrometeoizdat in Leningrad in 1974, has been substantially expanded and revised by the author for the present edition. This translation is published under an agreement with the Copyright Agency of the USSR (V AAP). feo.ua~uumuoe no.te u muaub A.D.[l,yöpoS GEOMAGNITNOE POLE I ZHIZN' A.P. Dubrov © 197 8 Springer Science+ Business Media N ew York Originally published by Plenum Press, New York in 1978 All righ ts reserved No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, phot~copying, microfllming, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher To the memory ofmy father and mother Foreword to the American Edition Dubrov' s treatise is the first general review of the biological effects of the geomagnetic field tobe published in English, itself a very valuable contribution. Dubrov appears to have done a fine job of understanding and sumrnarizing the non-Russian Iiterature and an even !arger mass of Russian literature, of the interesting nature of much of which I, for one, was unaware. This last is, to my rnind, an especially worthwhile aspect of the book for westem biologists unfamil­ iar with the Russian language. While a number of excellent contributions have appeared in Western jour­ nals since Dubrov completed his manuscript, and presumably some others in Russian joumals, nothing with which I am farniliar gainsays any of the facts, interpretations, or hypotheses presented in the book. It is remarkably complete in its coverage of the Iiterature to the beginning of 1976. Indeed, later reports simply strengthen themes that are presented and defended by Dubrov. The book carries a nice flavor of the current state of the subject, a subject that undoubtedly will become increasingly appreciated as we move down from the crest of the reductionist binge biology has been on over the past decade or two and commence asking broader questions about regulation and interrelations. And this book, coming along now as it is, should have a tremendous impact on the transition. Biologists are now in the process of leaming that something that fairly recently was regarded as absurd and even "theoretically impossible" is now becoming a well-established fact. However, its flip-flop properties render it difficult to evaluate though the overall phenomenon is clearly real. The subject will be urged upon science and scientists for resolution by an enlightened public that is being bombarded with more and more semipopular articles on biological influences of microwaves, radio waves, powerline frequencies, electric and magnetic fields, airbome ions, etc. People will recall the sad episodes of the recent past when ignorance of the latent effects of ionizing radiation perrnitted aeleterious exposure to it. vü vili Foreword to the American Edition My only points of ambivalence with respect to Dubrov's book are his speculations concerning possible roles of the geomagnetic field beyond those already demonstrated and conceming its mechanisms of action. And yet, for many persons more theoretically or speculatively inclined than I am, these could be among the most stimulating parts of the book. Anyway, every author has the right to express his own views, and Dubrov does so with an apparent wealth of general background. In brief, in my opinion this volume will be an excellent, much needed addition to the scientific Iiterature. Frank A. Brown, Jr. Morrison Professor of Biological Seiences Northwestern University Evanston, Illinois Preface to the American Edition I am very pleased that my book The Geomagnetic Field and Life is being published in English in the United States. Thanks to the initiative of Plenum Press, a publishing hause that is widely known in all countries, I have a great new opportunity to make direct contact with friends throughout the world. My book on the geomagnetic field can be regarded as an abstraction, whose purpose is to provide a better picture and understanding of the world araund us, its main driving forces, and factors, to help us to know ourselves, and to proceed further. The essence of the abstraction is that in treating the problern I have deliberately ignored the diverse effects of various extemal factors on living organisms and have confined myself to an analysis of the effect of the GMF. This approach allows me to go one step further-to draw various conclusions and propose theories that rnight bring us closer to a proper understanding of the true nature of the phenomena. Philosophers have long been aware that by such abstract thinking we can deterrnine the nature of phenomena more reliably, completely, and comprehensively, penetrate to the very core of the observed effects, and perceive the depth of their interrelations. Hence, although Ideal only with the GMF and the entire book is devoted to its decisive role in all the processes occurring in the biosphere, it should be bome in rnind that the GMF never acts alone anywhere, but is always combined in an intricate complex with the action of other important physical environmental factors that affect the vital activity of living creatures-temperature and light, atmospheric and terrestrial electricity, ionization and pressure, gravitation and cosrnic rays, and many other, as yet unknown, fields and radiations. Many scientists have contributed to the investigation of this problem, but the first names to be noted must surely be those of the Russian scientist A. L. Chizhevskii and the Italian scientist G. Piccardi, who have eamed worldwide fame by their titanic research on heliobiology and heliophysicochernistry over many years. ix X Preface to the American Edition A great contribution toward the clarification of this complex problern was made by the fundamental discoveries in 1965-1967 by Frank Brown and Y. Park (Evanston, Illinois), who showed the important role of the GMF horizontal component in biological rhythmicity and spatial orientation, and also the ability of living organisms to form relations between the GMF and the surrounding spatial distribution of light. After we discovered in 1969 that the permeability of biological membranes depends on and is regulated by diurnal variations of the GMF, the immense dass of rhythmic phenomena studied in chronobiology received an explanation. The theory of functional dissymmetry, which we developed in 1973, deepened our knowledge of this relation between living objects and the GMF. An important milestone in the forward march of biogeophysics was the establishment of the effect of slow rotation of biological objects and the effect of slowly rotating magnetic fields (l-2 rpm) on biological function (T. Hoshizaki and K. Hamner, 1962-1968; F. Brown and C. Chow, 1973-1976). This opened up new pathways to the discovery of new geophysical factors of great ecological significance and to the study of the interrelations of living organisms. Our discovery of the role of the GMF in genetic homeostasis from an analysis of available research (1969-1975) provided the basisnot only for a new outlook on evolution and understanding of the past history of development of the organic world, but also (and this was most important) showed the role of the GMF in evolutionary processes taking place in the biosphere at present. Weshall obtain an even deeper and greater understanding of this close relation between the GMF and biological objects when scientists in the near future discover the intimate mechanism of interaction of biological fields at different Ievels (molecular and cellular, arganismal, and populational) with the GMF, and the essential way by which the GMF acts on organic molecules and water molecules-tbe basis of our existence on earth. Some of my future readers, especially physicists, who have a skeptical attitude toward the biological effect of the GMF and who, of course, cannot have a full and detailed knowledge of the geomagnetobiological research cited, will find it difficult to understand the solidity and intensity of my belief in the role of the GMF in the development of the biosphere and all the processes occurring in it. On this point I think it apt to quote the very eminent evolutionist Ernst Mayr: ''In each period of time a particular group of facts and some prevailing theories so occupy the minds that to any other viewpoint it is extremely difficult to give any objective attention. Hence, we must show caution in the assessment of our present-day convictions" (982, p.21). This appeal of one of the greatest evolutionists in the world makes us confident that our aspirations, approaches, and outlooks in relation to the role of the GMF in the biosphere will be correctly understood by scientists of the world and the broad mass of readers. I am deeply grateful for the exceptional assistance given to me by Mr. Preface to the American Edition x.i Christopher Bird (Washington, D.C.) and by Lidya Zhdanova and Tamilla Nedoshivina (Leningrad), editors in the Soviet publishing house "Gidrometeoiz­ dat,'' for preparation of the Russian and American editions of my book. It is only by their efforts that this book has been published in the form in which I present it now for the judgment of my numerous friends and readers throughout the world.