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One of the most important open questions in science is how our consciousness is established. In the 1990s, long before winning the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics for his prediction of black holes, physicist Roger Penrose teamed up with anesthesiologist Stuart Hameroff to propose an ambitious answer.
Insights into magnetic bacteria may guide research into medical nanorobots
Researchers have long-studied magnetotactic bacteria (MTB): aquatic microbes that have the ability to orientate themselves to magnetic fields. This unusual behaviour makes them a subject of interest for improving our understanding of biomagnetism, and potentially harnessing their abilities for future technologies, such as medical nanorobots. Neutrons have been used to explore the characteristics of this magnetism, by probing the specialised parts of the cells that are involved.
MTBs exert their magnetic navigation skills using magnetosomes – membrane-structures containing magnetic nanoparticles that the bacteria mineralise from their environment. The magnetosomes arrange in a chain that acts like a magnetic compass, allowing the bacteria to move towards the riverbeds they inhabit, using the Earth’s magnetic fields. These unusual nanoparticles have been examined with neutron beams to discover the underlying mechanisms that determine the arrangement and geometry of the chains.
An international collaboration of researchers from University of the Basque Countries, University of Cantabria and the Institut Laue Langevin (ILL), have elucidated the precise structural configuration of the magnetosomes in the MTB strain Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense. They carried out small angle neutron scattering (SANS) on a colloid of MTB, a technique that allows them to see the magnetic microstructure of the organisms in detail in aqueous solution. The D33 instrument was employed because of its polarised neutron beam mode, which allowed the researchers to analyse both the structural components and magnetic arrangement – possible because neutrons will interact with both. Magnetic nanoparticles are central to many applications, ranging from biomedical diagnostics to data storage and even hyperthermia cancer treatments, but the magnetic structures within and in between nanoparticles are challenging to probe directly. Neutron-spin resolved (or ‘polarised’) small-angle neutron scattering is one of the few tools that can be used to investigate nanoparticles in the relevant scale.
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Informing how birds know when and where to stop migrating, researchers using nearly a century’s worth of data report that the Eurasian reed warbler – a songbird that migrates between sub-Saharan Africa and areas throughout Europe each year – uses slight variations in Earth’s magnetic field as a kind
“It’s thought that birds use cues derived from parameters in Earth’s magnetic field – magnetic declination, inclination, intensity, and overall strength for a particular area – to guide their arrival. However, Earth’s magnetic field slightly shifts year over year, suggesting that the magnetic parameters used to define an individual’s natal and breeding site will occur in a slightly different location each year. Despite this, bird populations are still often able to return to within meters of their natal sites each and every year.
To investigate whether fluctuations in Earth’s magnetic field can predict variation in the sites to which birds migrate, Joe Wynn and colleagues evaluated more than 80 years of ringing records for Eurasian reed warblers. The findings suggest that birds rely on magnetic inclination, or the specific dip angle between Earth’s magnetic field and Earth’s surface, as a “stop sign,” when relocating their breeding site.
According to the authors, birds learn the inclination angle before departing these sites, which is subsequently used as a uni-coordinate signal that they’ve arrived upon return. Although several locations on Earth’s surface can have the same inclination, Wynn et al. show how birds solve this by stopping at the first place where the correct inclination is encountered on their inherited flight trajectory.”
Physicists use atomic magnetometers to measure the biomagnetic signals of the carnivorous plant. The Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) is a carnivorous plant that encloses its prey using modified leaves as a trap. During this process, electrical signals known as action potentials trigger the clos
“(...) electrical signals known as action potentials trigger the closure of the leaf lobes. An interdisciplinary team of scientists has now shown that these electrical signals generate measurable magnetic fields. Using atomic magnetometers, it proved possible to record this biomagnetism. “You could say the investigation is a little like performing an MRI scan in humans,” said physicist Anne Fabricant. “The problem is that the magnetic signals in plants are very weak, which explains why it was extremely difficult to measure them with the help of older technologies.”
As kids, we learn there are four seasons, but researchers at the Stanford School of Medicine have found evidence to suggest that the human body doesn't see it this way.
“As kids, we learn there are four seasons, but researchers at the Stanford School of Medicine have found evidence to suggest that the human body doesn't see it this way.
"We're taught that the four seasons—winter, spring, summer and fall—are broken into roughly equal parts throughout the year, and I thought, 'Well, who says?'" Michael Snyder, Ph.D., professor and chair of genetics, said. "It didn't seem likely that human biology adheres to those rules. So we conducted a study guided by people's molecular compositions to let the biology tell us how many seasons there are."
Four years of molecular data from more than 100 participants indicate that the human body does experience predictable patterns of change, but they don't track with any of Mother Nature's traditional signals. Overall, Snyder and his team saw more than 1,000 molecules ebb and flow on an annual basis, with two pivotal time periods: late spring-early summer and late fall-early winter. These are key transition periods when change is afoot—both in the air and in the body, said Snyder, who is the Stanford W. Ascherman, MD, FACS, Professor in Genetics.”
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Research shows for the first time, how birds displaced beyond their normal migratory route are able to navigate back to their route and gives us an insight into how they accomplish this feat. Birdwatchers get very excited when a 'rare' migratory bird makes landfall having been blown off-course and
