Electrical and Magnetic Stimuli

A current part of our thinking is that matter is comprised of particles or waves which have electromagnetic properties. Therefore it is to be expected that externally applied electrical and magnetic fields will cause perturbations in atoms or subatomic particles. Bonding, enzyme action to associate or dissociate molecules, or to alter their configuration, must all be influenced, however slightly, by electromagnetic stimuli. This is taken for granted, but the major question which concerns us in this chapter is whether electromagnetic stimuli applied externally (usually artificially) can cause changes in plant hormone location, concentration, or action, which will in turn affect growth. Pure magnetic effects may also occur, but are more difficult to demonstrate experimentally, and discussion of them will be reserved until later, but it is quite easy to show that electrical effects cause reactions in plants and conversely, that hormonal effects can cause detectable changes in bioelectricity. Therefore it seems desirable to discuss the interaction of electrical fields and hormone activity, in as far as we can presently detect them with readily available apparatus. As noted above, there will be some response at deeper levels to every electrical change in the environment; but this response may be subatomic and will not be considered if we cannot detect it. Rather, we will first review the present state of knowledge; then, we will consider when electrical stimuli may lead to detectable changes in hormones or responses which may be suspected of having a hormonal basis. In the last part we will briefly discuss what little is known about magnetic effects.