Experts form Facebook group to discredit magnet-boy

A group of experts and sceptics have banded together on Facebook to prove that the Croatian boy who has harnessed worldwide fame for his supposed "magnetism" has no supernatural abilities.
The news about 6-year-old Ivan Stoiljkovic’s abilities to attract metal objects brought a lot of publicity to the Koprivnica-based family, prompting objections from some Croatians critical of "unscientific" representation of the phenomenon. The Facebook group "We are all Magneto Boy" shows photographs of various people with metal objects sticking to parts of their bodies, something of which, experts say, each human is capable. All that is necessary is placing a metal object onto smooth, hair-free parts of the body.
Psychologist Igor Miklousic from "Ivo Pilar" Institute in Zagreb is critical of the motives behind Stoiljkovic's sudden popularity.
"We believe that it is inappropriate to use a 6-year-old boy as a "circus freak," he says.
There is constantly news about people magnets, but so far, in controlled conditions, no one noticed the existence of a human magnetism, these experts claim.
Dr. Sasa Ceci, a physicist from "Rudjer Boskovic" Institute says: "If it were magnetism, he would attract pots and pans through the shirt," which is not the case with young Stoiljkovic.
The group's members believe money stands behind these "pseudo-scientific" claims, the daily Jutarnji List writes.
Croatian Times