Potential risk resulting from the influence of static magnetic field upon living organisms. Numerically simulated effects of the static magnetic field upon simple alkanols

A numerical simulation found that increasing the modeled static magnetic field changed the calculated heat of formation, dipole moment, atomic charge distribution and bond lengths of eight small alkanols. The study examined isolated molecular models rather than cells, animals or people, so it did not directly measure biological effects or establish a risk from real-world magnetic-field exposure.

The compounds were methanol, ethanol, propan-1-ol, propan-2-ol, butan-1-ol, S-butan-2-ol, isobutanol and tert-butanol. The authors selected primary, secondary and tertiary C1–C4 alkanols as simplified model compounds for the more complex alcohols found in plant and animal organisms. This choice placed the work at a molecular level and did not reproduce metabolism, enzymatic reactions or conditions within a living organism.

Researchers drew the molecular structures with Fujitsu SCIGRESS 2.0 and aligned their principal symmetry axes with the x-axis of a Cartesian system. Each molecule was positioned in a three-axial ellipsoid, with the magnetic field directed along the x-axis. Methanol was oriented along its carbon–oxygen bond, while the remaining alcohols were aligned with their longest carbon chain. Initial optimization and calculations of bond length, dipole moment, heat of formation, bond energy and total energy used Gaussian 0.9 with the 6-31G** basis set.

The static-field calculations were then performed in the Amsterdam Modelling Suite with the non-relativistic orbital momentum L-dot-B, or NR_LDOTB, method. Atomic charges and bond lengths were subsequently calculated with Gaussian 0.9 and the same basis set. Field strengths ranged from 0 to 100 Arbitrary Field Units, or AFU, rather than tesla, because the response of the computational program to magnitudes expressed in tesla was unknown. The 0-AFU calculation served as the control.

Across the tested compounds, calculated heats of formation became less negative as field strength increased, which the authors interpreted as molecular destabilisation, while dipole moments rose. Methanol was the most sensitive compound in the reported sensitivity rankings for both measures, and propan-2-ol ranked last. At 100 AFU, methanol’s heat of formation was reported as 49% higher than its zero-field value and its dipole moment as 55% higher. For butan-1-ol, the corresponding reported increases were approximately 42% and 26%. The response did not vary regularly with carbon-chain length, and changes in individual atomic charges and bond lengths were not uniformly monotonic across the molecules.

Structural changes differed by compound. In methanol, the carbon–oxygen bond generally shortened as field strength increased, while the other reported bonds tended to lengthen. In ethanol, the carbon adjacent to oxygen changed from negatively to positively charged at 10 AFU; the carbon–carbon and carbon–oxygen bonds generally shortened, while carbon–hydrogen and oxygen–hydrogen bonds lengthened. Propan-1-ol and butan-1-ol also showed shortening of several carbon–carbon and carbon–oxygen bonds, although their charge and bond-length responses included irregularities. The authors associated these patterns with small positional movements, changes in carbon-chain conformation, bond angles and possible polar interactions between atoms separated in space.

The hydroxyl group received particular attention because of its role in enzymatic alcohol metabolism. The authors stated that the modeled field increased the negative charge density at the hydroxyl oxygen and elongated the O–H bond. They proposed that greater negative charge at oxygen could favor its role as a Lewis base, while O–H elongation could facilitate contact with attacking enzymes. Their compound-specific interpretation was that the field could reduce Lewis basicity in methanol, propan-2-ol and S-butan-2-ol, whereas terminal-CH2 hydroxyl-bearing alkanols other than methanol appeared stimulated to react with enzymes. These are theoretical interpretations of molecular calculations, not observed metabolic outcomes in organisms.

Molecular visualizations were consistent with subtle reorientations and conformational changes, but they did not independently establish a single mechanism. The analysis reported that bond elongation was sometimes strongest when a bond was oriented at approximately 45 degrees to the field lines, as observed for methanol, butan-1-ol, S-butan-2-ol, isobutanol and tert-butanol. The authors also related the possibility of bond elongation rather than displacement in a rigid molecule to earlier observations of frogs levitated in static fields of 12–20 T.

The principal limitation is the scale and artificial nature of the simulation. The authors said the calculations used extremely high field intensities and reported that the introduced AFU values were 1,000 times higher than tesla, making the results unsuitable as direct estimates of ordinary environmental exposure. No cells, animals or people were exposed, and no metabolism, clinical outcome or biological harm was measured. The paper also asserted that a static field of about 2 AFU under natural Earth conditions could destroy electromagnetism within milliseconds, but the supplied evidence does not independently substantiate that claim. Predictions about consequences for humans therefore remain theoretical, and the model cannot by itself demonstrate benefit or harm from real-world static magnetic fields.

Subject of Research: Numerical simulation of static magnetic-field effects on the molecular structure of eight small alkanols

Article Title: Potential risk resulting from the influence of static magnetic field upon living organisms. Numerically simulated effects of the static magnetic field upon simple alkanols

Article References: Ciesielski, W., Girek, T., Oszczęda, Z., Soroka, J. A., & Tomasik, P. (2022). Potential risk resulting from the influence of static magnetic field upon living organisms. Numerically simulated effects of the static magnetic field upon simple alkanols. BioRisk, 18, 35-55. https://doi.org/10.3897/biorisk.18.76997

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/biorisk.18.76997

Keywords: static magnetic fields, alkanols, numerical simulation, molecular energetics, dipole moments, atomic charges, bond lengths, molecular conformation, computer chemistry, Potential, risk, resulting