Magnetite inclusion in a cellHERVE CADIOU, UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
Magnetic orientation was first documented in birds in the 1960s, and has since been found in a wide range of animals, but the underlying mechanisms have been elusive. Now, usinga new method detailed today (July 9) in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers have isolated magnetic cells from the olfactory epithelium of trout, and identified the mineral magnetite as the component that reacts to a changing magnetic field.
"[The authors] show really unequivocally that there is magnetite in these cells," said Wolfgang Wiltschko from Goethe University in Frankfurt, who was not involved in the study. Previous searches for magnetic cells have been hampered by possible contamination—either from non-magnetic iron triggering false positives, or from magnetic bacteria, in which magnetite has previously been isolated.
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