Preliminary Observations: The Effects of a Static Magnetic Field on the Chick Embryos Growth

The differentiation processes and the embryos development are generally very sensitive even to small external perturbations as, for instance, ionizing radiations, because of their possible biological amplification mechanisms. It seems rather surprising that only a few numbers of experiments had been performed in order to investigate the influence of a static magnetic field on the embryonic development (See e.g.1,2,3,4), Therefore we decided to undertake, with the initial collaboration of Dr. M. Barbieri, a preliminary study on the effects of a static magnetic field of middle intensity on the chick embryos growth; the most part of observations were made using eggs of White Leghorn fowl and some others using Guinea Fowl eggs. The eggs were introduced into a vertical magnetic field produced by an electromagnet with pole caps properly shaped in order to obtain both homogeneous and inhomogeneous fields, and these eggs were exposed to the field for 7 days (some eggs were also exposed for 9 and 15 days). The field intensity ranged between 0.5 KG and 6 KG and the field gradients were of the order of 1 – 2 KG/cm. The environmental parameters as humidity, ventilation and temperature were carefully controlled. A total number of about 200 chick embryos were used.