Fantastic breakdown of the Assouline & Capua findings. The part about chiral materials creating measurable sideways deflection got me thinking about ion channel selectivity in membranes. I've seen similar assymetric effects in potasium channels wher spatial gradients determine conductance in ways we still dont fully map. The biological parallels here could be way deeper than most people realize.
That’s a really sharp observation @neuralfoundry. One of the parallels that stands out to me is that in both systems it isn’t the presence of a magnetic field alone that matters, but how that field is converted into local gradients.
In the optics experiment, the applied magnetic field is relatively uniform, yet the chiral medium translates it into a spatially varying electromagnetic response that nudges the light sideways. In biology, ion channels (particularly potassium channels) are also highly asymmetric structures, where local field gradients can dominate behaviour even when bulk conditions look uniform.
If static magnetic fields influence biological systems, it’s likely through gradients interacting with asymmetric proteins and membranes, rather than through field strength alone. Sodium channels add further complexity with state-dependent gating (voltage, chemical, mechanical, temperartue, time), but they too operate within highly localised electromagnetic environments. The common thread seems to be how structure converts fields into gradients.
That’s why we continue to pay close attention to magnetic field gradients in therapeutic design, they may be where the most meaningful biological interactions occur.
Fantastic breakdown of the Assouline & Capua findings. The part about chiral materials creating measurable sideways deflection got me thinking about ion channel selectivity in membranes. I've seen similar assymetric effects in potasium channels wher spatial gradients determine conductance in ways we still dont fully map. The biological parallels here could be way deeper than most people realize.
That’s a really sharp observation @neuralfoundry. One of the parallels that stands out to me is that in both systems it isn’t the presence of a magnetic field alone that matters, but how that field is converted into local gradients.
In the optics experiment, the applied magnetic field is relatively uniform, yet the chiral medium translates it into a spatially varying electromagnetic response that nudges the light sideways. In biology, ion channels (particularly potassium channels) are also highly asymmetric structures, where local field gradients can dominate behaviour even when bulk conditions look uniform.
If static magnetic fields influence biological systems, it’s likely through gradients interacting with asymmetric proteins and membranes, rather than through field strength alone. Sodium channels add further complexity with state-dependent gating (voltage, chemical, mechanical, temperartue, time), but they too operate within highly localised electromagnetic environments. The common thread seems to be how structure converts fields into gradients.
That’s why we continue to pay close attention to magnetic field gradients in therapeutic design, they may be where the most meaningful biological interactions occur.