Human Subject Effects on Torsion Pendulum Oscillations: Further Evidence of Mediation by Convection Currents.

CONTEXT: When a human subject sits beneath a wire mesh, hemispheric torsion pendulum (TP) a rapid-onset series of oscillations at frequencies both higher and lower than the fundamental frequency of the TP have been consistently observed.

OBJECTIVE: This study was designed to replicate and extend prior findings that suggest the human subject effect on TP behavior is due to subject-generated, heat-induced convection currents.

DESIGN: Effects on pendulum behavior were tested after draping an aluminized "space blanket" over the subject and by replacing the subject with a thermal mattress pad shaped to approximate the human form.

SETTING: Experiments were performed in a basic science university research laboratory.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Real-time recordings and Fast Fourier Transform frequency spectra of pendulum oscillatory movement.

RESULTS: The space blanket blocked, while the mattress pad mimicked, the human subject induced complex array of pendulum oscillations.

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings support and strengthen previous results that suggest the effects of human subjects on behavior of a torsion pendulum are mediated by body-heat-induced air convection rather than an unknown type of biofield.