Do Humans Have a Compass in Their Nose?

Posted by Alex in Science & Tech on November 30, 2006 at 2:59 pm


Stephen Juan, an anthropologist from the University of Sydney, wrote that Caltech scientists discovered that humans possess crystals of magnetite in the ethmoid bone, just behind the nose:

Magnetite helps orientation and direction finding in animals. It no doubtingly helps migratory species migrate successfully by allowing them to draw upon the earth’s magnetic fields. In the case, when it comes to humans, magnetite makes the ethmoid bone sensitive to the earth’s magnetic field and helps one’s sense of direction. Some have even suggested that this "compass" was helpful in human evolution as it made migration and hunting easier.

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COMMENT

5 comments to "Do Humans Have a Compass in Their Nose?"

  1. Carl
    November 30th, 2006 at 3:26 pm

    I’ve heard this before (but it was explained to me as “iron in the nose”) and that it was why men have better (arguably!) navigational skills and direction sense, and possibly even better spatial reasoning - because men have larger deposits of the magnetic material than women.

    Interesting.

  2. Drew
    November 30th, 2006 at 5:17 pm

    So what happens when you go into an MRI machine?

  3. redstripe
    December 1st, 2006 at 12:09 pm

    Carl: it was in a Home Improvement episode, I think. The neighbor told Allen about iron in the nose, and he made some bugger joke afterwards.

  4. windy
    January 23rd, 2008 at 1:43 am

    huh funny, I just watched that Tim Taylor episode and googled that iron thing to find out more, thats how I came here :o)

  5. Bryan
    October 24th, 2008 at 11:58 am

    Hahaha, me too. Just saw that Home Improvement episode and wanted to look it up. How funny…


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