Biophysical Effects of Steady Magnetic Fields

7 Les Houches The purpose of this workshop was to bring together, for the first time, active scientists from very different fields, such as physics, chemistry, physiology and the behavioural sciences, all having a common interest: The interac­ tion of static magnetic fields with biological and macromolecular matter. As physicists, biologists and medical scientists naturally have different scientific competences, attitudes and abilities, this appeared to be an enterprise of un­ certain issue. However, it turned out that all participants tried to find (and many succeeded in reaching) a mutual basis of understanding. Thanks to a fair number of outstanding, comprehensive talks and to very active discus­ sions, most of us, we believe, have substantially enlarged our insight into the actual hard facts within a research area that was considered for a long time - and still remains in many aspects - somewhat controversial. The perhaps most striking and useful reaction to magnetic fields at the supermolecular level is the alignment of biopolymers, proteins, viruses, large assemblies such as retinal rods and membranes when suspended in a solvent, usually water. The ease of alignment depends on the anisotropy of the dia­ magnetic susceptibility of the constituent groups and bonds and, in addition, on the extent of their mutual orientational order inside a macromolecular assembly. Here very strong fields above I-lOT appear to be necessary, in general, to achieve measurable alignment.