ELF fields and cellular mechanisms (calcium, membrane potential)

For a weak field in the ELF band (extremely low frequencies, to which the SR belongs) to be able to act on an organism at all, there would have to be a cellular mechanism that "captures" it. Several candidates are proposed in the literature: an influence on the flow of calcium ions (Ca²⁺) across the cell membrane, a shift of the resting membrane potential and the radical pair hypothesis, according to which a weak magnetic field affects the chemistry of radical pairs and thereby indirectly the activity of ion channels too.

These mechanisms are the subject of active research, but their evidence is predominantly in-vitro (on cell cultures, often at field intensities higher than those the SR actually provides) and on the whole ambiguous. The transfer from the laboratory dish to a whole organism exposed to the real, very weak field of the SR is not documented. These are therefore probable partial mechanisms of ELF fields in general, not a proven action of the Schumann resonance specifically.