Science a GoGo's Home Page Forums General Discussion Not-Quite-Science Forum magnetic flux connection to cancer?

I'm inclined to agree with DA:

"Find something else to worry about dehammer."

The increase in cancers is probably caused mainly by the fact more of us are living longer. Therefore statistically more likely to get it.

The subject of magnetic reversals is interesting however. Re. samwik finding information. You can make your Google search title as long and as detailed as you like.

Thanks for the tip, I'll try some different stuff. First though, I'm looking at temp. data and also volcanos.
~Samwik

i used '"earth magnetic field", reversal' to find many links about the reversals, but when i add cancer, i get nothing. It is interesting that different sites list different periods of reversal, from 1000 year to millions of years. another point i dont understand is that some of them say that lower altitude changes more often than higher.

unfortuately they dont show much data on how the fluxutation occur nor do they show any data on if animals get cancer or anything like that. last time the reveral occured was long before anyone knew about cancer.

I also checked at a couple of the local towns 7 libraries, but none of the people there could help me find anything so i call the local university library. Again she was not able to find any studies on the link between the earth magnetic feild reversal and cancer.


from what i have been able to see from the various data, all the studies have been done on lava, sediment, and other ancient geological formation. None have been done to see if there is a current amount of fluxuations going on.

once again, im not so much worried about it, as interested in it.

re: "...but when i add cancer, i get nothing."
Hint, hint!

Hiya dehammer; I think the cancer connection is pretty slim at this point (ala, "to date"). Are there any studies of people who work in Antarctica that might address the connection, or how about airline pilots and attendants. If we start seeing aurora's overhead or down south, then we'll start seeing more research.
~samwik

the fact that you cant find any study on it does not mean its not happening. Im wondering if anyone has thought to check even if its a possiblity.

The reason you can't find anything dehammer is that the studies are of radiation levels ... not cancer. You have jumped thousands of years ahead of reality.

What we know is the radiation levels.
And we know the changes are inconsequential.

You will not find studies on this until there is something to study any more than you will find studies on the incidence of lung disease caused by the eruption of Mt. Rainier (until it does).

But the science related to the issue is published and widely available.

the thing is radiation can cause cancer, that is known. ultraviolet rays are known to cause skin cancer and other forms of radiation also have been know, including x rays which are blocked in part by the van allen belt.

from what i can tell, no one has even questioned if this is a possibility.

i have found articles on the fact that a pole reversal has begun, and that it will not be completed for as much as 300 years, but nothing on any connections (if there are any) between cancer and radiation leakage from a weakened van allen belt.

im just curious if i was over looking things.

as it has been pointed out, there is little danger of it actually happening to the average person. It just makes me wonder is all.

To see if anyone is watching, I did google and ask.com searching for 'geomagnetic observations' and 'Oersted satellite.' Lots of stuff; here's a sample (with an abstract from the last link).

http://www.meteo.be/IAGA_WG_V.1/

http://solarwww.mtk.nao.ac.jp/en/wdc.html#airglow

http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2002/2002JA009414.shtml

http://www.antarcticanz.govt.nz/article/3859?

http://gcmd.nasa.gov/records/GCMD_GSIMAGOBS.html

http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/Dynapage.taf?file=/nature/journal/v416/n6881/abs/416620a_fs.html

The 'geodynamo' in the Earth's liquid outer core produces a magnetic field that dominates the large and medium length scales of the magnetic field observed at the Earth's surface. Here we use data from the currently operating Danish Oersted satellite, and from the US Magsat satellite that operated in 1979/80, to identify and interpret variations in the magnetic field over the past 20 years, down to length scales previously inaccessible. Projected down to the surface of the Earth's core, we found these variations to be small below the Pacific Ocean, and large at polar latitudes and in a region centred below southern Africa. The flow pattern at the surface of the core that we calculate to account for these changes is characterized by a westward flow concentrated in retrograde polar vortices and an asymmetric ring where prograde vortices are correlated with highs (and retrograde vortices with lows) in the historical (400-year average) magnetic field. This pattern is analogous to those seen in a large class of numerical dynamo simulations, except for its longitudinal asymmetry. If this asymmetric state was reached often in the past, it might account for several persistent patterns observed in the palaeomagnetic field. We postulate that it might also be a state in which the geodynamo operates before reversing.

Have fun,
~~samwik

thanks. i didnt thing to look for geomagnetic in the search.

Is it "Global warming isn't happening"?

Blacknad.

thats not worth the words to respond to.

Well I call that a response. Eight words.

Dehammer, don't get the wrong idea - I think you're wrong on this issue, but you obviously do your homework and I respect that. Same goes for Richard.

Blacknad.

Regarding the original thought for this thread: Have you given any thought to how magnetic flux might have a connection to clouds?
Ala: Topic- Clouds Come from Deep Space Too
posted October 10, 2006 11:24 erich knight

NEWS from spacecenter.dk

October 4th 2006
"Getting closer to the cosmic connection to climate."
"A team at the Danish National Space Center has discovered how cosmic rays from exploding stars can help to make clouds in the atmosphere. The results support the theory that cosmic rays influence Earth?s climate."

What about solar wind; does it qualify, or are cosmic rays too high-energy to compare? Are cosmic rays affected by the geomagnetic field?

??
~S

interesting thought. I do know that the solar wind (material thrown out during a flare) blocks the cosmic rays from hitting the earth as much. I dont think the earths magnetic field does though. something i read about the space station is that they dont have to worry about the radiation from the sun so much because they are inside the van allen belt, but they do have to worry about the cosmic radiation, which to me means its not affected so much by the van allen belt.

on the other hand, when the van allen belt disappears due to the geomagnetic reversal, it would allow the solar wind to hit the earth. There was a deal on tv about mars. they said it used to have a lot thicker atmosphere, but lost it at about the same time the martian van allen belt disappeared. The magma from asteroid hits that struck the planet after the field disappeared showed that there was no geomagnetic feild at that point, yet ones that are older showed it was fairly strong.