Bioelectromagnetism...How the %$# does it work?

September 12, 2011 6:22 AM

Bioelectromagnetism...How the %$# does it work?

So when I went through puberty, I developed terrible static electricity problems. I could shock people through a sheet of paper, I broke the microwave twice just by touching it. And any watch I wore would just stop. My mom apparently went through similar issues.

I assumed it had something to do with my bioelectric field, but I didn't look into it much. But a recent conversation has got me curious again.

is bioelectromagnetism a good explanation for what happened? Where can I learn more? (Must be simple enough for a layman)

posted by Caravantea to Science & Nature (13 answers total)

No. It's regular static electricity that you pick up from the environment.
posted by empath at 6:27 AM on September 12, 2011 [4 favorites]

is bioelectromagnetism a good explanation for what happened?

There is no such thing.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 6:35 AM on September 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

"Bioelecticity" is significant at a cellular and subcellular level; many cells in your body rely on electric charge gradients and electric currents to do their work. On a whole-body scale, these cellular charges and currents are not relevant, and you're just dealing with plain familiar static electricity, the same thing that makes your socks stick together when they come out of the dryer.

Scuff your feet on the carpet enough in a low-humidity environment, as you find during winter, and you'll pick up quite a static charge. Wikipedia has a nice article on static electricity.
posted by killdevil at 6:36 AM on September 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

Er, bioelectromagnetism is very much a thing. It's not even a woo-woo thing. It's unlikely anything more than static electricity is responsible for what the OP is describing, but that is a far cry from saying bioelectromagnetism doesn't exist. See: your brain, electric eels, any nerves or muscles, etc.
posted by Nattie at 6:55 AM on September 12, 2011

+1 to empath. Nothing to do with your bioelectric field.

Something else is causing you and your mother to accumulate static electricity. Frizzy hair? Carpeting on your floors? Dry climate? The kind of clothes you're wearing?

Bioelectromagnetism exists, but at nowhere near the levels that you're describing.
posted by schmod at 7:01 AM on September 12, 2011

There's a suggested experiment here to see if you generate an unusual amount of static electricity, given your environment.

Point by point:

I could shock people through a sheet of paper

So can anybody that has a static charge built up.

I broke the microwave twice just by touching it

How do you know?

And any watch I wore would just stop.

What does this mean? The battery ran out?
posted by empath at 7:05 AM on September 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Walter Lewin from MIT explains static electricity here, with demonstrations on the human body.

He probably has some math in there, but feel free to fast forward past that part, if you don't understand it.
posted by empath at 7:07 AM on September 12, 2011

The problem is not whether or not bioelectromagnetism exists, but what it means.

The OP, Caravantea, apparently thinks it means "an individual having a peculiarly large electromagnetic influence on the world around him or her (much moreso than others of the same species)." That doesn't exist, except in unverified (and unverifiable) "Stranger Than Science!" books purporting to be nonfiction.

OTOH, as noted above, cells do have electromagnetic activity, and some creatures actually generate whole-system charges, such as electric eels, as an evolutionary adaptation. Humans do not.
posted by IAmBroom at 7:33 AM on September 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Yes, unless you're an electric eel or something similar, this was just plain old static electricity.

Electric eels have specialized organs that generate voltages on the orders of hundreds of volts.

In most animals, including humans, the voltages generated biologically are on the order of tens of millivolts, i.e., a few hundredths of a volt. (And, as others have noted, this tends to be across cell membranes, not the whole body.) Meanwhile, voltage from static electricity on your body can measure in the thousands of volts. (Why isn't static electricy more dangerous? Because it's a very low current. Not enough to hurt you beyond the brief sting of the shock, but enough to damage sensitive electronics.)
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 7:36 AM on September 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

There may be something in your environment that makes it worse. The clothes you wear, lack of humidity, carpet, etc. for a long time, I didn't use ATM cards, as they would always lose their coding. In one computer lab I worked in, we sprayed the carpet with 1:1 water:fabric softener, because it was really static-y and damaged data. No idea if the spray worked at all, or better than just plain water to reduce the dryness. Rubber soled shoes are better, synthetic clothes and carpet are worse, for reducing static.

Or, you have superpowers, and should learn to harness them.
posted by theora55 at 8:47 AM on September 12, 2011

Change in gait, change in shoes, change in environment. Look there first.
posted by deludingmyself at 2:06 PM on September 12, 2011

Change in carpets!
posted by miyabo at 6:52 PM on September 12, 2011

Pats on the bum
posted by fantabulous timewaster at 3:59 PM on September 14, 2011