Life Unknown: Preliminary Scheme for a Magnetotrophic Organism

Autor: Dirk Schulze-Makuch, Louis N. Irwin
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2023
Předmět:
Zdroj: Life, Vol 13, Iss 7, p 1446 (2023)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2075-1729
DOI: 10.3390/life13071446
Popis: No magnetotrophic organism on Earth is known to use magnetic fields as an energy source or the storage of information. However, a broad diversity of life forms is sensitive to magnetic fields and employs them for orientation and navigation, among other purposes. If the magnetic field strength were much larger, such as that on planets around neutron stars or magnetars, metabolic energy could be obtained from these magnetic fields in principle. Here, we introduce three hypothetical models of magnetotrophic organisms that obtain energy via the Lorentz force. Even if an organism uses magnetic fields only as an energy source, but otherwise is relying on biochemistry, this organism would be by definition a magnetotrophic form of life as we do not know it.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals
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