Are biochemical reactions affected by weak magnetic fields?

Abstract

The scientific literature is replete with studies of the influence of weak magnetic fields on biological systems. Often motivated by alleged health hazards of the stray electromagnetic fields that accompany the distribution and use of electrical power, the majority of these articles report definite effects. However, in the relatively few cases in which independent replication has been attempted, the original results have usually proved irreproducible (1, 2). The situation is not helped by the scarcity of (bio)physical mechanisms by which weak magnetic fields might interact with biology. With no hypothetical mechanism to guide experimental design, the majority of these investigations have been, to varying degrees, unsatisfactory. A striking exception is a series of articles by Anatoly Buchachenko and Dmitry Kouznetsov (BK) and their associates (3–6). In more than 10 papers dating back to 2005, including one in PNAS (3), BK have reported effects of magnetic interactions on the rate of enzymatic synthesis of ATP in vitro. These studies are conspicuous in that the reported changes are large, the interaction mechanism is physically credible, an explicit reaction scheme is proposed, and the process itself is of considerable biological importance. If genuine and applicable in vivo, these results could have significant therapeutic (if not health) implications. In PNAS, the work by Crotty et al. (7) describes attempts to replicate BK's findings.