"Magnetic Cells" Isolated For First Time 72
sciencehabit writes "For the first time, researchers have isolated magnetic cells in an animal. The cells--found in this case in rainbow trout--may help the fish respond to Earth's magnetic fields, allowing it to find its way home after spending 3 years at sea and traveling up to 300 kilometers away. The advance may help researchers get to the root of magnetic sensing in a variety of creatures, including birds."
In Humans (Score:4, Funny)
My brother-in-law, Big Ed, has a metal plate in his head from when he was kicked by a mule, and he can tell the difference between Miller and Miller Light without looking at the labels. Also he has a magnetic memory.
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Actually, there is no difference between Miller and Miller Light - they both taste like piss. Or, at least what I would imagine piss to taste like.
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Yeah, right....
You must drink that shit.
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If you don't know the difference between piss and shit, you have no credibility as a food critic.
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Well if the man is anything like me, he'd have IgA nephropathy and his piss would come out pre-carbonated.
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The difference in taste is like horse piss versus diabetic horse piss.
Re:In Humans (Score:5, Funny)
That's nothing. I've got an uncle with a wooden leg and an aunt with a cedar chest.
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I've got an uncle with a wooden leg and an aunt with a cedar chest.
How does she smell?
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What about Cryptochrome? (Score:3)
I thought they figured this stuff out already for birds...
Some references here [nih.gov] and here [uiuc.edu]...
Re:What about Cryptochrome? (Score:5, Interesting)
Your second link says "Despite decades of study, the physical basis of the avian magnetic sense remains elusive". It goes on to say that one hypothesis is magnetite, and another hypothesis is the generation of radical pairs inside cryptochrome, but this wasn't confirmed since no atomic-resolution structure of cryptochrome has yet been produced.
The article says that individual cells have been isolated which operate on magnetite. So it looks like it (1) is the first time there's been an actual confirmed result, and (2) it contradicts the cryptochrome hypothesis.
But I know nothing about this field. I'm merely reading the linked articles.
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Second reference was particularly interesting, if way over my head. If I understand correctly the authors explore various mechanisms to explain known behaviours without knowing in which cells such occurs; the current article says they've isolated the cells themselves, at least in one species of fish. Whether the trout mechanism is the same...
Magnetic monopoles! (Score:2)
I told you we would find them!
Re:Magnetic monopoles! (Score:4, Interesting)
I told you we would find them!
Usually crashing into the walls around the clinic I went for MRI scans.
The clinic had landscaped brush around the building to keep birds for hitting the walls and windows.
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Those poor, imprisoned birds! Can't those people hit their own walls and windows? Slave labor isn't ok just because they're avians!
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Just imagine if you could use this as an indoor navigation system (IPS) on your smartphone. Compared to most other IPSes, which require thousands of WiFi or Bluetooth base stations to achieve comparable accuracy, this infrastructure-free approach sounds like it would be rather awesome.
Yeah, all you would need is a bunch of ground up trout noses.
What's not to like?
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Yeah, all you would need is a bunch of ground up trout noses.
Or the ability to check which story [slashdot.org] you're commenting on.
Humans Have The Hardware (Score:1)
Humans have the ability to sense magnetic fields. Whether most people do or not is still in question.
Source: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2011/06/21/humans-have-a-magnetic-sensor-in-our-eyes-but-can-we-see-magnetic-fields/
Maybe we lost the ability to recognize it as we're surrounded by metals and different fields since birth and our brains couldn't figure out the input.
Get rich quick! (Score:4, Funny)
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I'll patent your patent because I use it with my iRod and iReel. My iRod and iReel are different than your Rod and Reel. Notice the "i" before Rod and Reel.
Obligatory (Score:2, Funny)
Number Two: Rainbow trout
Dr. Evil: [pause] Right.
Number Two: They're trout with magnetic sensors
Dr. Evil: Are they ill tempered?
Number Two: Absolutely.
Dr. Evil: Oh well, that's a start.
They're called (Score:1)
Steelhead. Not rainbow trout. Same species, but the ocean-going variety are called steelhead.
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Steelhead. Not rainbow trout. Same species, but the ocean-going variety are called steelhead.
Except that the steel should attract the magnetite and the fish would end up swimming in circles.
But on a more serious note, where does the trout get the magnetite from? Nibbling on rocks? Is there some giant deposit deep in the ocean (next to a derelict alien spaceship perhaps)? Can they filter it out from the water?
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Except the ocean just dissolves steel, unless it's stainless steel (and then the process is merely slower, not absent), and a lot of stainless steel doesn't attract magnets.
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Re:They're called (Score:4, Interesting)
The rainbow trout's genus [wikipedia.org] was quietly changed from Salmo to Oncorhynchus, placing it with the other salmons. Several trout (including the ubiquitous lake trout) turned out to be char, genus Salvelinus.
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This is nothing. Big Iron had Magnetic Cores (Score:1)
Back in the day, we had magnetic cores and we flipped them on and off to find F1SH.
And we liked it!
Also, as AC pointed out, Rainbow Trout are landlocked salmonids. Usually due to really large geological alterations like those in Nelson BC which created that giant Kootenay Lake you see in all the SciFi movies. Technically, the genomes are pretty much the same, though.
I could have told them that. (Score:5, Insightful)
We trouts have an excellent sense of direction.
Re:I could have told them that. (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, but how many of them have a license to gill?
Magnetism-Day (Score:2)
Is it magnitism-day or something? [slashdot.org]
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(That's magnet with an "e", as per the subject line) :D
Are they iPhone compatible? (Score:1)
Seriously - let's combine this article with the earlier one from today [slashdot.org]. All we need are some nanotrancievers and rainbow trout do the mapping!
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Yeah, this article completely reminded me of that article. It seems to me that the compas learning could be done in a very similar way.
Trout Research Accident (Score:2)
At least I get rainbow trout sense! I always know which stream is home.
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Well, that and you almost always know when someone gets your order wrong at a restaurant.
Steelhead Trout (Score:2)
What's the catch? (Score:3)
1. Puree
2. Dredge with magnet
Re:What's the catch? (Score:4, Interesting)
Because the cells are far too weak a magnet for that to work. Any magnet strong enough to pull out the magnetic cells will be strong enough to move *any* water-containing cell.
From reading TFA, it seems they did this by placing samples under a microscope, then slowly rotating a strong magnet beneath it. The magnetic cells rotated with the magnet; the non-magnetic cells did not.
The human male has magnetic cells too. (Score:4, Funny)
They are located in the dermis of the upper lip and produce a feature called "moustache".
This produces an irresistible magnetic attraction in the opposite sex.
bio RF detection or communication (Score:2)
I wonder how radio communication never evolved in animals (and/or plants). It seems like it's something that should be possible given the fact that we all use electrical signals in the nervous system. Heck some creatures like the electric eel can produce lots of it. I imagine it may start of with sea creatures that can detect others by detecting electrical activity and then refining that to rf tuning followed by the ability to adjust ones own electrical activity at well. I suspect that given a few hundred
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Nice, I should have done more research! Thanks.
Fucking magnets... (Score:1)
Don't expect too much (Score:2)
Yes, I know this is Slashdot, but, still, don't expect then to screw like the average girlfriend. No, I haven't tried magnets.
Rainbow Trout in the Ocean, eh? (Score:2)
Article is bullshit? (Score:2)
"Rainbow Trout are not salt water fish, they are fresh water only. Article is bullshit."
No, you are. ;)
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_trout#Life_cycle [wikipedia.org]
"Like salmon, steelheads are anadromous: they return to their original hatching ground to spawn. Similar to Atlantic salmon, but unlike their Pacific Oncorhynchus salmonid kin, steelheads are iteroparous (able to spawn several times, each time separated by months) and make several spawning trips between fresh and salt water. The steelhead smolts (im
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Bozos (Score:1)