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ScootysDad t1_iv05gjr wrote

Reply to comment by Hk-Neowizard in Some animals can generate electricty, and others can supposedly sense the Earth's magnetic field, but is any animal known to generate a magnetic field of its own? by Redditor_From_Italy

Any moving electron produces an electric field. In a complex body they tend to cancel each other out so much so that our basic detectors can't detect. The iron in the hemoglobin, the electrical impulses from the nerves, they all produce a magnetic field.

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Hk-Neowizard t1_iv09d39 wrote

That's true, but also meaningless. Any atom has moving electrons in it (except some H^+ and He^+2, if we're being pedantic). So under your definition literally everything produces a magnetic field.

The magnetic field from a few molecules however, is negligible, and only when compounded by aligning together many such fields do you get anything substantial enough to mean anything.

Tying this back to the original question, OP is clearly talking about macroscopic fields, as considered in biology, and not infinitesimal fields like those produced by a single hemoglobin molecule

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ScootysDad t1_iv1ddm9 wrote

Like I said the magnetic fields are there we just can't make use of it yet. In the future machines that can exquisitely tease out those details can have major influence in diagnostics and security.

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