magnetic field
dr. dolittle | January 3, 2014 Image from: The Poo Prejudice | The Arid Land Homesteaders League www.plantfreak.wordpress.com
Okay, here is something rather interesting that I came across today. Scientists have discovered that dogs will align their bodies with the Earth's magnetic field before excretion. What is even more amazing is that the scientists actually observed over 5,000 pee breaks and over 1,800 defecations to come to this conclusion. Their findings suggest that when the magnetic field is stable, dogs will stand in-line with the North-South axis while avoiding the East-West axis. However, when the field…
dr. dolittle | July 10, 2012
Magnetite in a fish nasal cell. Image: The Scientist from Herve Cadiou, University of Cambridge
In a prior blog, we talked about different animals that are able to sense the Earth's magnetic field. The mystery of how fish, and perhaps other animals, do this may be solved. Animals use the magnetic field like a compass. This is an important skill especially to migratory species who don't have the benefit of Google Maps. It is sort of a built-in GPS system.
Dr. Michael Walker from the University of Auckland discovered that brain cells connected to the nasal cavity of fish can be stimulated by…
rallain | September 2, 2010A while ago, we had a ton of lightning. As a bonus, it always happened in the middle of the night. I love sleeping where it sounds like I am on the front line in WWI - no, I don't. But, while lying awake waiting for the next BOOM I thought of something. Instead of just counting the time between flash and boom, maybe I could make a lightning detector.
For mere mortals, the first step might be to google "lightning detector". I don't want to do that. What fun would that be? I did look up something. The current in a typical lightning strike is on the order of 30,000 amps. How could I…
bleimanb | February 26, 2009Recent conservation efforts in the Florida Everglades to save the American crocodile from the brink of extinction have been effective: good thing. Territorial crocodiles hanging out in Floridian's back yards, however: bad thing. The worst part? Once a crocodile is removed from its favorite haunt, it will travel tens, sometimes hundreds of miles to return, using the Earth's magnetic field as a guide. Now the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has turned to an interesting method of deterring the crocs' return once they have been relocated - taping magnets to the crocodiles' heads…
zooillogix | August 26, 2008After reviewing thousands of images of cows on Google Earth, the new gold standard in data collection, scientists have determined that cows generally point north. Lest you think this is some crap news my brother grabbed from the Daily Mail, Dr. Sabine Begall and colleagues from the University of Duisburg-Essen published this discovery in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal.
When you Google "Cow Compass" this is what happens.
After factoring out variations like wind, terrain, sun, time of day, time of year, temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, dew point, breed of…
grrlscientist | November 7, 2007tags: researchblogging.org, birds, migration, cryptochrome, blue light, garden warbler, Sylvia borin, magnetic compass, avian cryptochrome 1a, ornithology
Garden Warbler, Sylvia borin (Boddaert, 1783)
Blakeney Point, 16th September 2006.
Image: Matthew Rodgers [larger image].
Every year, millions of birds migrate to their breeding grounds and then back to their wintering grounds again. These birds' journies cover anywhere between several hundred to many thousands of miles, even when the skies are cloudy or dark. How do birds unerringly find their way to their destinations? Thanks to…