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Paramagnetism is a real phenomenon that can be measured and explained by scientists, but is often relegated to the weird and fanciful in conventional agricultural circles.
The phenomenon was first named and extensively investigated by the British scientist Michael Faraday beginning in 1845; it was then applied to agriculture by Dr Phil Callahan. Interestingly, Boral quarries in Australia became aware of the benefits of paramagnetic material in agriculture during the 1990s and conducted a lot of research into the topic*.
Basically any substance, including soil or rock, that will move toward a magnet is paramagnetic. Scientifically, it occurs in elements or compounds possessing unpaired electrons. If a substance containing such electrons is placed in a magnetic field, the field of the electron aligns with the field of the applied magnetic field and causes the electron to be slightly attracted to that magnetic field. When the magnetic field is removed, the net magnetic alignment is lost as the electrons relax back to their normal random motion. This phenomenon is similar to magnetism, but does not have the permanency that magnetic materials exhibit.
Dr Callahan noted that while paramagnetic materials had the capacity to store/hold energy, they were also able to emit energy. Research into photon/light emissions by Dr Popp has since upheld this observation, which can also be confirmed at home by poking a pin hole through a camera lens cover, then strapping some paramagnetic material across the hole. The lens cover is put on a camera, set to slow release, and left in total darkness for 3 weeks. When developed, the film displays a bright circle of 'light' radiating out from the pinhole.
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Last Updated on Friday, 02 May 2008 18:55 |
