While the Manchester Experiments didn't conclusively prove that humans could sense magnetic fields, they were certainly provocative, and they set off dozens of replication attempts around the globe. But the initial findings may have been too good to be true.

Biologists James L Gould and Kenneth P Able, for example, found that they were unable, in eight different attempts, to replicate the effect. "We believe that our consistent failures indicate that the phenomenon is neither as simple nor as robust as we had been inclined to hope," they wrote in Science. That's even after they invited Baker to New Jersey to assist in the administration of the experiments. But in a 1987 metanalysis, Baker claimed that when all the replication attempts conducted in the UK, USA, and Australia were combined into a larger dataset, his original findings indeed held up.

Even now, the Manchester Experiments remain controversial, but discoveries of a mineral called magnetite in our brains and bones and of cryptochrome in our eyes have continued to push researchers to search for evidence that we're able, somehow, to sense magnetic fields. It's safe to say at least that if we do have that ability, however slight, it's not been easy to prove. For now, the best way to demonstrate the ability might just be to surgically implant magnets into your fingertips... which is probably best avoided.

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