114
The Body Electric
With direct currents, the EEG continued to show delta waves for as long
as a half hour after the current was turned off, and the animals remained
groggy and unresponsive just as after chemical anesthesia.
THE EEG OF A SALAMANDER ANESTHETIZED BY A MAGNETIC FIELD
It seemed to us that we'd discovered the best possible anesthetic, al-
lowing prompt recovery with no side effects. We proposed getting a
bigger electromagnet to try this method on larger animals and eventu-
ally humans, but we never even got a reply. Our data on direct currents
in the nerves weren't quite acceptable, but reactions by living things to
magnetic fields were absolutely out of the question in America at that
time.
I was flabbergasted, therefore, to receive a phone call from one of the
most prominent biologists in the Harvard-MIT orbit. He told me,
"We're in the process of setting up an international conference on high-
energy magnetic fields at MIT, and we've received a number of questions
from respectable scientists in other countries asking why there is to be
no session on biological effects of magnetic fields. This is a totally new
idea to us, and we really don't believe there are such effects, but some of
these fellows are persistent. We've searched the scientific literature and
found
your
paper
on the
Hall
effect.
Since you steem to
be
the only
person in this country doing any work along these lines, let me ask if
you think there's anything to it."