Acquisition and Display of Local Geomagnetic and Atmospheric Data

							      Acquisition and Display of Local Geomagnetic
  and Atmospheric Data, in Synchronism with Biological
          and Physicochemical Measurements
                                            T. F. Peterson, Jr.

                                             Cleveland, Ohio USA

                                            Received March 12, 1997

Abstract—The following hypothesis to explain biogeomagnetic effects is proposed: 1. That variations in the
Earth’s magnetic field cause differences in the concentrations of electric charge at the surface of the Earth.
2. That these charge concentrations change with time, and may differ according to geographic location. 3. That
concentration of charge creates a local “earth ground” potential which is not detected using conventional volt-
age measuring methods. 4. That change in the ground potential external to each living cell causes a difference in
the membrane potential between the original interior potential and the new ground potential of the conductive
intercellular fluid. 5. That these changes in membrane potentials affect the rates of ion and electron transfer
across cell membranes and through ion channels. In preparing to test the hypothesis, we have assembled and
tested a ten-channel computer-controlled system to acquire, display, and store one-minute measurements of the
local laboratory environment. The system includes a three-axis fluxgate magnetometer, an atmospheric pres-
sure transducer, outdoor temperature and relative humidity sensors, an air-ion density discriminator, a power
line status monitor, and several platinum temperature sensors to monitor laboratory instruments and apparatus.
The remaining channels are used to measure pH and electrochemical potentials and the total volume charge of
dielectrics. The computer’s modem is used to automatically synchronize the computer clock to the US NIST
standard. A computer clock reading is stored with each one-minute data set. A seven-day record will store on a
single 3.5" high-density diskette for later analysis.