Unsolved Problems in Biology/Magnetite

It has been suggested by those outside of mainstream science that magnetite gives organisms a sort of '6th sense', with which they can predict events in the near future (for example, earthquakes and other difficult-to-predict phenomena). Clearly this is not possible if existing scientific theories of time are accepted.

A more plausible idea is that magnetite's weak magnetic field provides some information that can be processed by an organism's central nervous system. The degree to which this information could be gathered, processed, and perceived is not established. More conservative researchers believe the magnetite acts as a tiny compass which might explain, for example, how migratory birds seem to know the difference between north and south, as exhibited by their migratory patterns.