Scientists are preparing people for life without the Earth’s magnetic field

This environment led to arrhythmia in fish embryos and disturbances in their development.

In the vacuum of space, far from the Earth’s magnetic field, living beings can develop heart problems and develop prerequisites for Alzheimer’s disease. This conclusion was reached by specialists from several Russian institutes at once, who conducted a series of special experiments with animals and volunteers.

Our planet, which has an inner core, constantly generates a magnetic field, which is an important vital factor for all living things. There were periods when the North and South magnetic poles changed places with each other, this weakened the geomagnetic field, and perhaps this was the reason for the extinction of species.

Studies of the influence of the hypomagnetic environment (weakened or zero magnetic field) are also important for future human missions to Mars. On the surface of this planet, it will be weakened by a thousand times, and during the flight – zero. How will the body behave under such conditions? Can he somehow adapt to them?

As MK was told in the Russian Science Foundation, researchers from the Scientific and Technical Center for Unique Instrumentation of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Biology of Inland Waters named after I.D. Papanin (IBVV RAS) and Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov, they decided to find out how the absence of a geomagnetic field affects the cardiac activity of zebrafish embryos, a popular model used to study diseases of the human cardiovascular system. These fish are convenient for their transparency – it is easy to observe the processes in their body directly through a microscope.

On the second day after fertilization, the researchers placed one part of the developing fish (200 individuals) in conditions of an almost zero magnetic field, and the other, in the same amount, was left in their usual environment with a field equal to 52 μT (microtesla).

It turned out that in the experimental group, the survival rate of individuals was lower. In addition, from 5.5 to 12.5% ​​of the embryos were found to have various developmental defects – dropsy, curvature of the body, and their heart rate increased by about ten beats per minute.

According to Vyacheslav Krylov, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Chief Researcher at the Institute of Biology and Water Resources of the Russian Academy of Sciences, arrhythmia in fish can serve as an adaptive mechanism for them. In the near future, scientists plan to continue studying the effect of various magnetic fields on the functioning of the cardiovascular system.

The described study is far from being the first in Russia. Researchers at the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences have stepped much further in research on the effect of a hypomagnetic environment on living organisms.

According to the leading researcher of the institute, head of the laboratory for the regulation of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems, Vasily Rusanov, they started here several years ago with studies of the effect of hypomagnetic conditions on Japanese quails, as well as on their embryos. They also experienced disruptions in cardiovascular activity, which was reflected in several scientific articles.

In 2019, the staff of the Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences took a step further – they placed a test volunteer in a hypomagnetic environment. For an experiment called “Harp”, a special metal cage was built at the institute, on the bars of which (they somewhat resemble the strings of a musical instrument of the same name) a certain electric field was created. As a result, for the person inside it, the usual magnetic field weakened 1000 times! During the stay of a volunteer in such a cage and after it, scientists studied his psychophysiological changes using a variety of attached sensors.

In the first experiment, the tester was in the Harp for 8 hours; in 2020, the stay time was increased to 24 hours.

According to Rusanov, the heart of the participants in the experiment made itself felt towards the end of the zero geomagnetic field exposure, when a cumulative effect formed. This was expressed in increased parasympathetic regulation of cardiovascular activity.

“We cannot create particularly harsh conditions for the testers, the level of magnetic field reduction in the experiment was quite gentle,” says Rusanov. – That is why we did not achieve pathological processes. Everything was in the normal range, but, one might say, was approaching the borderline states. We were the first in the world to notice that under the influence of a hypomagnetic environment, the protein composition of the blood changes in a person. Proteomic analysis showed an increase in the concentration of a protein associated with Alzheimer’s disease. This does not mean that the tester had a violation of brain activity, just a tendency to such changes was noticed.

By the way, according to an employee of the Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences, during a space flight to another planet, it will not be a hypomagnetic environment that will be dangerous (some kind of magnetic field will be preserved due to the operating equipment on board). The impact on people of cosmic and solar radiation is much more serious. It in itself is dangerous for a person, and in combination with a hypomagnetic environment, its destructive power will only increase.