the_fungible_man t1_iuzr0jf wrote
Yes, humans for example. Any electric current will generate a magnetic field, and there is plenty of small electric currents flowing in your body right now. In your heart, your central and peripheral nervous systems, your muscles...
Hk-Neowizard t1_iuzs8e0 wrote
Humans don't produce any measurable magnetic fields. At most you could describe it as magnetic "noise", and even that would be a stretch.
The human body has a lot of small "circuits" that run a tiny amounts of current, but these have no order to them. Just like the difference between a random iron block and a magnet, without some dominant order, these tiny magnetic fields don't amount to anything measurable.
On top of that, the human body represents a rather significant reluctance to magnetic fields. Lots of free flowing iron around, ions and air. A measurable, yet still small, magnetic field won't get far enough to leave the body before weakening into nothing
MustangoDAmore t1_iuzz47a wrote
Related to "humans don't produce any measurable magnetic field", you can use magnetoencephalography (MEG) to measure small magnetic fields evoked in our brain. This technique does allow to measure consistent magnetic field evoked by specific triggers (such as sounds). Therefore, these magnetic signals are definitely not "random".
But it is true that these signals are super small and therefore challenging to measure. So luckily, our brains do not randomly attract metal thing 😅
ScootysDad t1_iv05gjr wrote
Any moving electron produces an electric field. In a complex body they tend to cancel each other out so much so that our basic detectors can't detect. The iron in the hemoglobin, the electrical impulses from the nerves, they all produce a magnetic field.
Hk-Neowizard t1_iv09d39 wrote
That's true, but also meaningless. Any atom has moving electrons in it (except some H^+ and He^+2, if we're being pedantic). So under your definition literally everything produces a magnetic field.
The magnetic field from a few molecules however, is negligible, and only when compounded by aligning together many such fields do you get anything substantial enough to mean anything.
Tying this back to the original question, OP is clearly talking about macroscopic fields, as considered in biology, and not infinitesimal fields like those produced by a single hemoglobin molecule
ScootysDad t1_iv1ddm9 wrote
Like I said the magnetic fields are there we just can't make use of it yet. In the future machines that can exquisitely tease out those details can have major influence in diagnostics and security.
[deleted] t1_iuzwdpd wrote
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