By Dr David Whitehouse
BBC News Online science editor
Japanese researchers have observed mice behaving strangely after being exposed to electric and magnetic fields similar to those sometimes detected before earthquakes.
The levels of exposure were far smaller than humans are capable of perceiving.
Professor Takeshi Yagi of Osaka University says he first noticed the unusual behaviour in mice in his laboratory eight years ago, the day before the Kobe earthquake.
The agitation seen in the mice before the earthquake was reproduced by subjecting them to fluctuating electromagnetic fields suggesting the animals could be used as a crude way to predict earthquakes.
However, biologists point out that unusual behaviour in mice is difficult to define which may limit the usefulness of the technique.
Jumping fish
There are many anecdotal stories about animals behaving oddly just before earthquakes.
In China, catfish are said to sometimes throw themselves out of their tanks; in Mexico snakes are said to leave their burrows.
In the United States one retired worker from the US Geological Survey claimed to be able to predict earthquakes by counting the number of lost pet adverts in newspapers.
He said that in the two weeks before an earthquake, more pets wandered off than usual.
Disrupted clock
In Professor Yagi's experiments, mice were kept for two weeks in a stable environment so that their day-night rhythms could be monitored.
They were then exposed to low-intensity electromagnetic pulses for 30 minutes.
There are many reports of fluctuations in the Earth's electromagnetic field prior to an earthquake.
In a paper presented to a recent meeting of the Bioelectromagnetic Society (Bems), Professor Yagi says the electromagnetic pulses disrupted the internal "clock" of his mice, causing them to rest less often.
He says more experiments are needed to solidify the results but, he believes the work to be the first experimental evidence showing animals' ability to sense imminent earthquakes.
I'm in the midst of reading Rupert Sheldrake's book 'Pets who know when their owners are coming home' which has to rank as one of the most wordy titles ever, but inside is packed with rather more than the average anecdotal revisions of dogs who wait at windows. I'm only in the opening pages, but he cites a cat who ran to hide in the attic prior to a US earthquake and various other similarly unexplained phenomena in support of his theory of morphic fields. I'll need to read more to be convinced, but he has a pretty sound basis and his approach seems eminently intelligent.
I began to read him because Linda Kohanov uses the morphic field theory as a possible means to explain why people have long-distance relationships with their horses, and why it's possible for members of each species to link into the collective unconscious of the other and for that to influence their life.
Mmm interesting. There was evidence of significantly unusual behaviour among the (many) stray dogs in Istanbul before the earthquake there 2 years ago. As I travel to Turkey a lot I now make a point of noting dogs' behaviour while I'm there, to establish the norm and any variances!
Re long distance relationships and the collective unconscious, I've recently read a book can't remember the name but by an American "pet psychic" about telepathing with your pets. A bit populist, and I pooh poohed the notion until I read the book which talks about lots of cosmic stuff I've encountered through other interests so while not convinced I'm less sceptical than before.
I read 'Healing for Horses' by Margrit Coates a while ago and was more impressed than I'd expected to be. Her attitude was sane, balanced and grounded and it seemed to me that if all the horse owners in the country tried to tune into their horses in the way she describes, then the world would be a better place.
I wonder, if any of you northeners (Debbie I'm thinking of you mainly as you only work down the road from me!) remember the earthquakes we had in Manchester. I was at work at the time and you could almost feel something in the air before they occured. It dawned on me that the birds had stopped singing (yes we do have birds in salford!) and everything seemed quiet.
Aside from that, I also felt weird before the quakes occured. I could feel the smaller shakes that other people were not aware of (it was like being sat on a boat and feeling the movement of the sea underneath)and I could sense a kind tension in the air - spookey but I wonder if it has anything to do with the above or whether I was just imagining it ???
The horses weren't bothered in the slightest by the earthquakes. My cat was though - he was strange all evening - mind you, he is nervy littly soul as a result of all the burglaries (of my flat) he had to witness when we lived in London.
I think how much you felt of the earthquakes yourself depended on where you were in the building. I was on the second floor and it was fairly significant. Those on the ground floor or outside at the time didn't notice much. Also, where you were in relation to the walls affected how much you felt it - it was very interesting.
I didn't really notice anything odd - mind you, I was in central Manchester and there aren't any birds there - only traffic. The traffic did die down after the first tremor - must have been coincidence - I was waiting to hear fire engines because I wondered whether it was another bomb. And then the quakes continued all day. They were apparently very sigificant at the farm.
We had to get on the BBC news website to find it really was an earthquake.