Chapter 3: Theory of the Red Blood Cells
The Theory of the Red Blood Cells (TRBC) aims at exploiting a conceptual breakthrough to investigate certain fundamental scientific questions and identify concepts for new technologies that may arise in the process. TRBC is yielding a number of exciting hypotheses. Beyond a doubt, they require much careful study and testing to assess and perhaps validate. Experimental/incremental science and theoretical/breakthrough science do best when they walk hand-in-hand down the path of inquiry.
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The red blood cells' unique, remarkable role in oxygen and carbon dioxide transport as well as their extremely high hemoglobin content (hundreds of millions of hemoglobin molecules are packed into every RBC), anaerobic energy metabolism, peculiar biconcave shape, and 120-day life cycle (with 2,000,000 new RBCs formed every second) sharply distinguish them from the body's other cells. While their counterparts in many vertebrates and invertebrates retain the nuclei and organelles that mammalian RBCs eject in the course of maturation, the erythrocyte group in general exhibits certain "prokaryotoid" characteristics, including an ultrasensitivity to electromagnetic forces.
Hemoglobin contains the same porphyrin ring as chlorophyll, though chlorophyll’s is coordinated by a magnesium atom instead of an iron one. Given chlorophyll’s role as the light-processing molecule of plants, hemoglobin thus appears to be unusually well equipped to absorb and process light.
The coordinated group response of the whole blood to threats[1] and the RBCs' strong participation in the "communications phenomenon" whereby cells signal to each other by means of patterns of biophotons[2] add to the picture of RBCs as conserved, "prokaryotoid"—or more exactly "metakaryotic". The recent discovery that neural cells can be retrained to become red blood cells suggests that one should think not of different "kinds" of cells but rather of different "states" of cells, so the RBCs can be considered as being in a metakaryotic state.
They differ from other body cells in lesser ways as well. For instance, RBCs are the only cells in the body that do not produce eicosanoids—prostaglandins and leukotrienes.
The Animal Magnetoreceptor
Over the past 150 years, hundreds of scientists have collected and sifted through evidence on the role of magnetoreception in animal navigation in creatures ranging from tiny microbes to human beings. While it has been possible to demonstrate that responsiveness to magnetic fields—primarily the geomagnetic field—is found in scores of species, critical, perplexing questions remain. Various researchers have identified magnetite and other biomineralized crystal deposits in a range of locations in the bodies of animals, including the well-known deposits in the front of human skulls. However, the ultrafineness of magnetoreception, reaching into the low nanotesla region, suggests that "[s]uch sensitivities can only be achieved by averaging the responses of large numbers of magnetite-based magnetoreceptors."[3] But magnetite crystals are generally not found in large numbers, and the presumed exceedingly sensitive and computationally powerful magnetoanalyzer must be something other than the crystals themselves.
Similarly, a leading researcher on the question of human magnetoreception concluded on the basis of extensive experimentation that "[m]ost, if not all, results from bus and chair experiments seem compatible with a magnetoreceptor based on particles subject to alignment and realignment."[4] In other words, fixed particles lack the flexibility to handle the demanding task of magnetic reception and orientation.
A further weakness of the biomineralized crystal hypothesis is that such crystals are of necessity localized, yet there is no indication of how the signals they might be receiving can be transported to the area in the body where magnetoanalysis takes place. In other words, the main candidate for the magnetoreceptor—biomineralized crystals—confronts grave obstacles to acceptance. However, one should not preclude the possibility that various deposits of biomineralized crystals and other similar static formations in animal bodies are used by the actual magnetoanalyzing system to generate some of the data required for its operation.
A consideration of the hypothesis that the red blood cells and their hemolymphatic counterparts form the animal magnetoreceptor and magnetoanalyzer yields a much more satisfying result. Red blood cells and their hemolymphatic counterparts fit four of the criteria ("questions") in a review of the hunt for the animal "magnetoreceptor" much better than do the magnetoreceptors currently under consideration.[5] They match 15 other criteria to be found in the literature as well (=19), and their role can be plausibly reconciled with the evidence that human beings possess a weak sense of magnetic orientation.[6]
What are these 19 criteria, and how do the RBCs fit them? Before listing them, it should be pointed out that on such a complex and contentious subject, it is unreasonable to find evidence that is uniformly robust. The magnetoreceptor cells do not come labelled with little "M"s. Rather, an approach that cites every shred of possible evidence or logical argument, no matter how slender, can yield better results. Even if a half-dozen of the pieces of evidence or arguments are rejected, and another half-dozen remain unsure, the remaining hard core of evidence and logic can suffice to persuade observers with open minds.
Here are the 19 criteria for the magnetoreceptor that the RBCs fit:
For further information and analysis regarding the Theory of the Red Blood Cells, see Close-to-Nature Medicine and Intriguing Anomalies: An Introduction to Scientific Detective Work.
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Notes
[1] Voeikov, V.L., C.N. Novikov, and N.I. Siuch (1997), "Alterations in Luminol-enhanced Chemiluminescence from Nondiluted Whole Blood in the Course of Low-level Laser Therapy of Angina Pectoris Patients," SPIE Proceedings 2895
[2] See the many contributions of Fritz-Albert Popp, most recently in Chang, Jiin-Ju, Joachim Fisch, and Fritz-Albert Popp, eds. (1998). Biophotons. Boston: Kluwer
[3] Walker, Michael M. et al. (1997), “Structure and Function of the Vertebrate Magnetic Sense,” Nature 390:Nov. 27:371-76, 376
[4] Baker, R.R. (1989). Human Navigation and Magnetoreception. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 558
[5] Zagal'skaia, E.O. and A.A. Maksimovich (1997), "Where to Search for the Magnetoreceptor [Russian]," Izvestiia Akademii Nauk. Seriia Biologicheskaia 4:473-83, 481—no mention of RBCs; see also Kirschvink, J.L., D.S. Jones, and B.J. MacFadden, eds. (1985). Magnetite Biomineralization and Magnetoreception in Organisms. New York: Plenum; and Wiltschko, R. and W. Wiltschko (1995). Magnetic Orientation in Animals. New York: Springer
[6] Baker, R.R. (1989). Human Navigation and Magnetoreception. Manchester: Manchester University Press
[7] Walker, Michael M. et al. (1997), “Structure and Function of the Vertebrate Magnetic Sense,” Nature 390:Nov. 27:371-76, 375
[8] Baker, R.R. (1989). Human Navigation and Magnetoreception. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 558
[9] Phillips, John B. and S. Chris Borland (1992), “Behavioural Evidence for Use of a Light-dependent Magnetoreception Mechanism by a Vertebrate,” Nature 359:Sept. 10:142-44
[10] Romains, Jules (1924). Eyeless Sight. New York: Putnam; Hayes, Samuel P. (1935). Facial Vision or the Sense of Obstacles. Watertown, Massachusetts; Oren, Dan A. (1996), “Humoral Phototransduction: Blood Is a Messenger,” The Neuroscientist:2:4:207-10; see the discussion of the Russian scientific literature in Duplessis, Yvonne (1996). Une science nouvelle: la dermo-optique. Monaco: Éditions du Rocher.
[11] Churchland, Patricia S. and Terrence J. Sejnowski (1992). The Computational Brain. Cambridge MA: MIT, 221-31
[12] For the binding problem, see Llinás, Rodolfo and Patricia S. Churchland, eds. (1996). The Mind-Brain Continuum. Cambridge MA: MIT, 297
[13] Rapp, Brenda, ed. (2001). The Handbook of Cognitive Neuropsychology: What Deficits Reveal about the Human Mind. Philadelphia: Psychology Press, 159-61
[14] Collins, Graham P. (2001). "Magnetic Revelations: Functional MRI Highlights Neurons Receiving Signals," Scientific American, October, 21
[15] Zigmond, Michael J. et al., eds. (1999). Fundamental Neuroscience. San Diego: Academic Press, 403
[16] Gendelman, H.E., S.A. Lipton, and L. Epstein (1998). The Neurology of AIDS. New York: Chapman & Hall, 133
[17] Becker, Robert O. (1992), "Electromagnetism and Psi Phenomena," Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 86:1:1-17
[18] For surveys of related phenomena, see Ben-Jacob, Eshel (1998), "Bacterial Wisdom, Gödel's Theorem and Creative Genomic Webs," Physica A 248:57-76; Bloom, Howard (2000). Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century. New York: John Wiley & Sons; Shapiro, James A. (1998), "Thinking about Bacterial Populations as Multicellular Organisms," Annual Review of Microbiology. Palo Alto CA: Annual Reviews:81-104; and Vertosick, Frank (2002). The Genius Within: Discovering the Intelligence of Every Living Thing. New York: Harcourt Brace.
[19] Irwin, Harvey J. (1989). An Introduction to Parapsychology. Jefferson NC and London: McFarland, 156. Doubters of the existence of psi phenomena might wish to consult Radin, Dean (1997). The Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena. New York: HarperCollins
[20] Chang, Jiin-Ju, Joachim Fisch, and Fritz-Albert Popp, eds. (1998). Biophotons. Boston: Kluwer, 239-50