I have never heard of this regarding gender but this is common in the navigation literature. The same is found in many species of birds. Some pigeon racers go so far as to feed their birds diets that include iron. As far as I know, there is no clear documentation that these are the cells critical for the magnetic compass although there is speculation that they are important. There are also cells in the pineal gland of pigeons that responsive to magnetic stimuli.
What is really cool is that on cloudy days (on clear days they use the sun to navigate), you can release pigeons in areas that are considered magnetic anomalies and they cannot navigate. Also, some sun spot activity (which disrupts the earth mag. field) is correlated with large losses of pigeons during races. Probably more than you wanted to know. Cheri ----- Original Message ----- From: "Rob Weisskirch" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, April 26, 2002 1:02 PM Subject: An Iron-fortified student question > TIPSperts, > > I had a student claim that men have better senses of direction because > they have iron in their noses and are able to find magnetic north better. > Any possible claim that this is true? We were talking about men's, on > average, better performance on spatial tasks when this came up. > > I know it's funny, but it's snot. > > Rob > > Rob Weisskirch, MSW, Ph.D. > Human Development Program > Liberal Studies Institute, Building 15 > 100 Campus Center > California State University, Monterey Bay > Seaside, CA 93955-8001 > (831) 582-5079 > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > --- > You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
