"Magnetic Cells" Isolated For First Time

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"Magnetic Cells" Isolated For First Time

Posted by Unknown on Monday July 9, 2012 @11:05AM from the designer-babies-with-builtin-compasses dept.

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."

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In Humans by Anonymous Coward · 2012-07-09 11:09 · 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.
1. Re:In Humans by Cosgrach · 2012-07-09 11:24 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  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.
  
  --
  Why is it that most of the people that I encounter seem to have been shat from the Sphincter of Mediocrity?
2. Re:In Humans by Cosgrach · 2012-07-09 11:40 · Score: 0
  
  Yeah, right....
  You must drink that shit.
  
  --
  Why is it that most of the people that I encounter seem to have been shat from the Sphincter of Mediocrity?
3. Re:In Humans by PopeRatzo · 2012-07-09 12:41 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  My brother-in-law, Big Ed, has a metal plate in his head from when he was kicked by a mule
  That's nothing. I've got an uncle with a wooden leg and an aunt with a cedar chest.
  
  --
  You are welcome on my lawn.
4. Re:In Humans by Anonymous Coward · 2012-07-09 12:52 · Score: 1, Funny
  
  If you don't know the difference between piss and shit, you have no credibility as a food critic.
5. Re:In Humans by newcastlejon · 2012-07-09 13:07 · Score: 0
  
  I've got an uncle with a wooden leg and an aunt with a cedar chest.
  How does she smell?
  
  --
  If God forks the Universe every time you roll a die, he'd better have a damned good memory.
6. Re:In Humans by socceroos · 2012-07-09 14:56 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  woodn't you like to know.
7. Re:In Humans by Darinbob · 2012-07-09 16:11 · Score: 0
  
  The difference in taste is like horse piss versus diabetic horse piss.
8. Re:In Humans by AlphaWolf_HK · 2012-07-09 17:17 · Score: 0
  
  Well if the man is anything like me, he'd have IgA nephropathy and his piss would come out pre-carbonated.
  
  --
  Careful with names containing L slashdot.org/~AiphaWolf_HK slashdot.org/~AlphaWoif_HK slashdot.org/~AiphaWoif_HK
9. Re:In Humans by TheInternetGuy · 2012-07-09 20:38 · Score: 0
  
  Funny guy, I hold you personally responsible. Now get your ass over here and wipe the coffee of my monitor.
  
  --
  If my comment didn't sound as good in your head as it did in mine, then I guess we all know who's to blame
10. Re:In Humans by Anonymous Coward · 2012-07-10 02:26 · Score: 0
  
  How is his personality?
What about Cryptochrome? by slew · 2012-07-09 11:24 · Score: 2

I thought they figured this stuff out already for birds...
Some references here and here...
1. Re:What about Cryptochrome? by ljw1004 · 2012-07-09 12:05 · Score: 4, 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.
2. Re:What about Cryptochrome? by kermidge · 2012-07-09 12:19 · Score: 1
  
  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...
3. Re:What about Cryptochrome? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-07-09 19:21 · Score: 0
  
  I'm merely reading the linked articles.
  ljw1004, we're not interested in a rotten behavior like this!
Magnetic monopoles! by Bromskloss · 2012-07-09 11:26 · Score: 1

I told you we would find them!

--
Swedish plasma phys. PhD student; MSc EE; knows maths, programming, electronics; finance interest; seeks opportunities
1. Re:Magnetic monopoles! by ackthpt · 2012-07-09 11:31 · Score: 3, 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.
  
  --
  
  A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
2. Re:Magnetic monopoles! by Anonymous Coward · 2012-07-09 11:36 · Score: 0
  
  The bologna of memory nights is not present at this location to serve as a source of entertainment for an ignorant individual such as yourself. Please move along.
3. Re:Magnetic monopoles! by gottabeme · 2012-07-11 10:28 · Score: 1
  
  Those poor, imprisoned birds! Can't those people hit their own walls and windows? Slave labor isn't ok just because they're avians!
  
  --
  "Those who consume the bulk of goods are those who make them. We must never forget this secret of our prosperity."
IPS by Anonymous Coward · 2012-07-09 11:31 · Score: 0

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.
1. Re:IPS by ColdWetDog · 2012-07-09 12:12 · Score: 1
  
  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?
  
  --
  Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
2. Re:IPS by newcastlejon · 2012-07-09 13:09 · Score: 1
  
  Yeah, all you would need is a bunch of ground up trout noses.
  Or the ability to check which story you're commenting on.
  
  --
  If God forks the Universe every time you roll a die, he'd better have a damned good memory.
Humans Have The Hardware by Anonymous Coward · 2012-07-09 11:38 · 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.
1. Re:Humans Have The Hardware by Anonymous Coward · 2012-07-09 14:42 · Score: 0
  
  Of course humans can sense them, expose a human to a strong enough magnetic field and we'll have a seizure, the question though is how sensitive are we to the magnetism and how weak can it be before we can no longer sense it? And there's a very real difference between being able to and not developing the ability.
Get rich quick! by cervesaebraciator · 2012-07-09 11:41 · Score: 3, Funny

I think I'll patent magnetic flies and lures to better attract trout. Of course, it doesn't work that way but the point is it can be marketed as though it does.
1. Re:Get rich quick! by future+assassin · 2012-07-09 18:47 · Score: 1
  
  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.
  
  --
  by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
Well by Anonymous Coward · 2012-07-09 11:43 · Score: 0

Hack the bird it is then...
Obligatory by srussia · 2012-07-09 11:58 · Score: 1, Funny

Dr. Evil: You know, I have one simple request. And that is to have sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads! Now evidently my cycloptic colleague informs me that that cannot be done. Ah, would you remind me what I pay you people for, honestly? Throw me a bone here! What do we have?

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.

--
Set your phasers on "funky"!
They're called by Anonymous Coward · 2012-07-09 12:02 · Score: 1

Steelhead. Not rainbow trout. Same species, but the ocean-going variety are called steelhead.
1. Re:They're called by ColdWetDog · 2012-07-09 12:16 · Score: 1
  
  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?
  
  --
  Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
2. Re:They're called by Solandri · 2012-07-09 13:27 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  It gets worse. The taxonomy of the salmonids was based on morphology in the centuries before DNA testing. When the DNA was actually tested, ichthyologists had a lot of egg on their faces. Not only did they find that the steelhead and rainbow trout were the same species, it turned out the rainbow trout - arguably the archetypical trout - is actually a salmon. It also turned out the Atlantic salmon (the most common species of "farmed salmon") was a trout, not a salmon.
  
  The rainbow trout's genus 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.
3. Re:They're called by tomhath · 2012-07-09 13:38 · Score: 1
  
  I suppose next you're going to say that a Walleyed Pike is actually a perch. Oh wait...
4. Re:They're called by anagama · 2012-07-09 14:15 · Score: 1
  
  Except that the steel should attract the magnetite and the fish would end up swimming in circles.
  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.
  
  --
  What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
5. Re:They're called by undefinedreference · 2012-07-09 15:28 · Score: 1
  
  You beat me to it! I was going to point out that "rainbow trout" don't migrate out to sea.
6. Re:They're called by sFurbo · 2012-07-09 18:52 · Score: 1
  
  Magnetite is an iron oxide. Iron comes a a premium for life (which is why we are so efficient at keeping what we have in our bodies), but the fish wouldn't get long without hemoglobin in their blood, so they must have a supply of iron.
EM? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-07-09 12:06 · Score: 0

Probably explains the strange congregation of fish inder the high voltage power lines going over revelstoke lake every summer.
This is nothing. Big Iron had Magnetic Cores by WillAffleckUW · 2012-07-09 12:17 · 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.

--
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
1. Re:This is nothing. Big Iron had Magnetic Cores by Anonymous Coward · 2012-07-09 23:49 · Score: 0
  
  Not in the UK they are not - I have had many rainbow trout from the rivers in the Peak District and they are definately not landlocked
I could have told them that. by trout007 · 2012-07-09 12:20 · Score: 4, Insightful

We trouts have an excellent sense of direction.

--
I love Jesus, except for his foreign policy.
1. Re:I could have told them that. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-07-09 13:08 · Score: 0
  
  Two things:
  1. You're not a trout, you're just wearing a trout costume.
  2. This is the women's restroom, not a river.
2. Re:I could have told them that. by bill_mcgonigle · 2012-07-09 13:54 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Yes, but how many of them have a license to gill?
  
  --
  My God, it's Full of Source!
  OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
3. Re:I could have told them that. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-07-09 14:24 · Score: 0
  
  Seems like you've waited your whole slasdhot life just to make that comment.
4. Re:I could have told them that. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-07-09 14:53 · Score: 0
  
  Few trout have a "license to gill", but all trout are "natural born gillers".
5. Re:I could have told them that. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-07-09 23:43 · Score: 0
  
  I'm so finished with puns.
Magnetism-Day by davegravy · 2012-07-09 12:37 · Score: 1

Is it magnitism-day or something?
1. Re:Magnetism-Day by davegravy · 2012-07-09 12:38 · Score: 1
  
  (That's magnet with an "e", as per the subject line) :D
HA! by Anonymous Coward · 2012-07-09 12:39 · Score: 0

Those fish are going to be FUCKED when the poles flip!
Are they iPhone compatible? by mj1856 · 2012-07-09 12:40 · Score: 1

Seriously - let's combine this article with the earlier one from today. All we need are some nanotrancievers and rainbow trout do the mapping!
1. Re:Are they iPhone compatible? by canadiannomad · 2012-07-09 13:42 · Score: 1
  
  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.
  
  --
  Hmm, the humour and sarcasm seem to have been be lost on you.
Trout Research Accident by hedgemage · 2012-07-09 12:49 · Score: 1

I was bitten by a radioactive rainbow trout when I was a student. Now I have the proportionate strength and agility of a rainbow trout, so yeah... not much of a change.
At least I get rainbow trout sense! I always know which stream is home.
1. Re:Trout Research Accident by jackbird · 2012-07-09 14:14 · Score: 1
  
  Well, that and you almost always know when someone gets your order wrong at a restaurant.
Steelhead Trout by tomhath · 2012-07-09 13:34 · Score: 1

TFA calls them Rainbow Trout, but usually the anadromous variety are called Steelhead Trout. Kind of interesting that the name was given to them long before anyone knew their heads contain little magnets.
What's the catch? by Vegemeister · 2012-07-09 14:08 · Score: 2

How was this difficult? I mean, wouldn't it just be:

1. Puree
2. Dredge with magnet
1. Re:What's the catch? by gman003 · 2012-07-09 14:58 · Score: 3, 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. by Kaz+Kylheku · 2012-07-09 14:14 · Score: 3, 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 by backslashdot · 2012-07-09 17:20 · Score: 1

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 million years we should see something evolve that can use radio-communication. Assuming there aren't already creatures with that yet undiscovered ability. Who knows maybe this rainbow trout can do it, has anyone checked?
1. Re:bio RF detection or communication by Anonymous Coward · 2012-07-10 01:01 · Score: 0
  
  It actually exists and is studied:
  See : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gymnotiformes
  "The electric organs of most Gymnotiformes produce tiny discharges of just a few millivolts, far too weak to cause any harm to other fish. Instead, they are used to help navigate the environment, including locating the bottom-dwelling invertebrates that compose their diet. They may also be used to send signals between fish of the same species.[5]"
  One free scientific paper you can start with if you are interested:
  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18456893
2. Re:bio RF detection or communication by backslashdot · 2012-07-10 23:48 · Score: 1
  
  Nice, I should have done more research! Thanks.
Fucking magnets... by kh31d4r · 2012-07-09 18:01 · Score: 1

....how do they work?
Don't expect too much by G3ckoG33k · 2012-07-09 21:00 · Score: 1

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? by certain+death · 2012-07-10 00:58 · Score: 1

Rainbow Trout are not salt water fish, they are fresh water only. Article is bullshit.

--
"My immediate reaction is "WTF? What kind of moron doesn't make things 64-bit safe to begin with?" Linus
Article is bullshit? by G3ckoG33k · 2012-07-10 02:40 · Score: 1

"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
"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 (immature or young fish) remain in the river for about a year before heading to sea, whereas salmon typically return to the seas as smolts."
1. Re:Article is bullshit? by certain+death · 2012-07-10 02:47 · Score: 1
  
  Yes, Steelhead, there is a difference.
  
  --
  "My immediate reaction is "WTF? What kind of moron doesn't make things 64-bit safe to begin with?" Linus
2. Re:Article is bullshit? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-07-11 10:15 · Score: 0
  
  "Yes, Steelhead, there is a difference."
  From the Wikipedia page:
  "The steelhead is a sea-run rainbow trout (anadromous) usually returning to freshwater to spawn after two to three years at sea; rainbow trout and steelhead trout are the same species."
  So, they are the same species.
Bozos by edrobinson · 2012-07-10 03:47 · Score: 1

Rainbow trout do not migrate to the sea and back. Perhaps your thinking of Steelheads.