Features
Berkeley students test human ‘sixth sense’
Students at the University of California at Berkeley are testing whether or not humans have the ability to navigate their surroundings without the use of senses like sight and hearing.
To determine whether humans, like many animals, have the innate ability to navigate using theEarth's magnetic field, subjects are blindfolded andspun in chairs until they are disoriented. They are thenasked to determine directions such as north and south and to locate common landmarks.
The experiment is part of “Animal Navigation: Which Way is Home?” – a freshman seminar taught byintegrative biology professor Roy Caldwell.
The trait being tested was suggested by controversial findings from England that suggest people have an inborn ability to navigate.
